At a certain point in the writing of any book, you become absolutely certain that it’s terrible and is only getting more terrible with every word you write. This is normal. You just have to keep going, push your way through, and have faith that, through practice and experience and determination, you will get to the end. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
It’s possible I’m a weird person, you know, and if I could only write for people who are like me, I wouldn’t have any audience at all. Ultimately, I’m my audience. I’m writing stories for myself. I don’t have kids of my own, and I don’t hang around kids all that much. Maybe that puts me at a disadvantage. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
The stakes in my books tend to be kind of ridiculously high. In ‘Kid vs. Squid,’ the question is whether or not the California coast will be subsumed by the ocean in favor of the creation of a new Atlantis. In ‘The Boy at the End of the World,’ what’s at stake is the survival of the human species. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
I think there’s only one reason to write in any genre or to any particular age group: You are called to it. You think it’d be fun. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
I feel lucky that my career so far has included books for adults and books for kids. They’re equally important to me, and I hope I get to continue writing both. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
More than working toward the book’s climax, I work toward the denouement. As a reader and a writer, that’s where I find the real satisfaction. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
In everything I write, I’m always striving to hit the right mix of light and darkness, humor and pain, fun and seriousness. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
In high school, I stole a six-foot submarine sandwich from a banquet room in front of several hundred people. I did it because I was in marching band, and we were promised food if we played, and they broke their promise. It was my first and only heist, motivated by justice and hunger. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
There’s a certain amount of world-building that I hold off on until I need it for the story. World building in advance isn’t really my thing, maybe because I didn’t grow up playing RPG’s. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote
I try to eat vegetarian, though I’m not very good at it, and it’s a work in progress. But we basically are what we eat. Eat fat, and there’s fat in your body. Eat protein, and there’s protein in your body. Eat magic, and there’s magic in your body. Greg van Eekhout Read Quote