He was intrigued by the power of words, not the literary words that filled the books in the library but the sharp, staccato words that went into the writing of news stories. Words that went for the jugular. Active verbs… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
...pain reaches a certain point and does not get worse but remains in all its intensity and you can survive it. — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
It came to me that hell would not be fire and smoke after all but arctic, everything white and frigid. Hell would be not… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
I don't like to think in terms of writing ten or twelve pages a day. Usually I'm writing a scene, and it's always with the idea, "I wonder what is going to happen." Or sometimes I write about something that affected me emotionally the day before and that I don't want to lose. I'm very unorganized at first; but finally… — Robert Cormier Copy Share
“Mr. Sinclair once asked the class to make a list of the ten most beautiful words in the English language, and the only word… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
The earliest influence on me was the movies of the thirties when I was growing up. Those were stories. If you look at them now, you see the development of character and the twists of plot; but essentially they told stories. My mother didn't go to the movies because of a religious promise she made early in her life, and… — Robert Cormier Copy Share
“He was afraid that his body would come loose, all his bones spilling out like a building collapsing, like a picket fence clattering apart.” — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence. — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
I don't mean to be insolent. I'm truthful. I tell the truth and the truth sometimes hurts. For instance, you have bad breath, Lieutenant.… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
That's what Archie did - built a house nobody could anticipate a need for, except himself, a house that was invisible to everyone else. — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image
“They tell you to do your own thing but they don't mean it. They don't want you to do your thing, not unless it… — Robert Cormier Copy Share Image