Fiction came quite a while later. I began with short stories and fiction for children.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I began writing fictional stories and little screenplays when I was in fifth grade.
I was really into writing short fiction and also photography when I was a kid.
I started writing short fiction very briefly, as I imagine is the case for some novelists.
I came from a family of incredible storytellers, but I didn't start writing children's books until I was 41 years old.
I tried writing fiction as a little kid, but had a teacher humiliate me, so didn't write again until I was a senior in college.
Storybooks were always a big part of my imagination, and my childhood and adolescence.
I wrote fiction during my entire childhood, from age 4 to 18, and started writing plays when I went to Yale and Oxford.
I had been writing fiction since I was in eighth grade, because I loved it.
As a child, I loved story books and wanted to be in them so desperately and live the stories.
When I started writing and illustrating, I knew little of classic children's literature. My stories came from real life, from my concerns about what was happening in the world.