I don't understand it when people get cross about how one of their works was adapted and say, 'Oh, they ruined it!' Well, the book is still there.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Writers who want to interfere with adaptations of their work are basically undemocratic. The book still stands as an entity on its own.
Often in the past, there have been authors that were deeply disappointed in their adaptation, but that's because they haven't accepted the fact that a movie is a different thing, and it can't possibly be the same as the book.
Oftentimes when you see adaptations of books you like, you're let down. As an author, you assume that they are going to suck. A little bit of hope is dangerous.
The issue of doing an adaptation of a book is the theater of the mind, and so you always face that.
I can't believe there will ever be a time when the book is truly obsolete. It is the perfect technology and feeds the soul.
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.
It was really written as most, I think, books are by writers - for themselves. There was something that just had to be written, in a way that it had to be written. If you know what I mean.
Some writers get snooty about what happens when their books are adapted to film, but I don't feel that way.
My advice to anyone adapting a novel is that once they've read it and learnt to understand it, then they must throw it away and never look at it again!
The books one has written in the past have two surprises in store: one couldn't write them again, and wouldn't want to.