He is everything, everything, everything I ever admired and wanted and couldn't have. He is everything I needed and couldn't find in real life. Of course he is. That's why I invented him. Geraldine McCaughrean More Quotes by Geraldine McCaughrean More Quotes From Geraldine McCaughrean Most of my central characters lack confidence but overcome their timidity or low self-esteem to win through in the end, so I suppose there is a kind of wish-fulfillment at work. Geraldine McCaughrean end win confidence work The one thing that makes writing a better pastime than reading is that you can make things turn out the way you want in the end! Geraldine McCaughrean better you reading way I like working in children's books because it gives rise to such a variety of jobs. One month it may be a picture book, the next a retelling, the next a play, a short story or the start of the next novel. Geraldine McCaughrean picture start book children I still keep thinking someone will penetrate my guilty secret - that I have been masquerading as a writer all these years while all I was really doing was enjoying myself, pursuing my passion. Geraldine McCaughrean someone myself passion thinking 'Would I mind if someone wrote a sequel to one of my books?' I asked myself, and I decided that I wouldn't, providing that the writer was respectful, had read my book first, and wasn't drunk when doing it. Geraldine McCaughrean myself drunk mind book I started writing because I found I could spend more time in my own imagination by doing that than I could by reading. Geraldine McCaughrean my-own reading imagination time The chief thing is to make children feel good about themselves. They want to step into the shoes of a hero who is bigger and stronger, to face tremendous dangers and come home safely for tea. Geraldine McCaughrean good hero home tea I never dreamt I could be an author when I grew up. It just didn't occur to me, because I thought you had to be a) academic, so go to university, things like that, and I didn't think I was clever, or b) dead because I just assumed all the authors in the library were dead. Geraldine McCaughrean think me you library Well, unfortunately, my father passed away before my first book was published, so he never lived to see me as an author. But I think my mum was suitably pleased because she was mad about words. If she ever came across a word that she didn't know, she would always look it up in the dictionary. Geraldine McCaughrean words look me father I simply don't understand authors that know everything before they write it; it seems so cold blooded. I think it's lovely when the story takes over and goes somewhere else. Geraldine McCaughrean story understand think know My mum used to tell me to never boil my cabbages twice, and I think it's artistically valid. While I do find myself on similar themes in my books, I try not to repeat myself, and that's something which is all too easy to do in series books. Geraldine McCaughrean never myself think me I'm not one of those people who had a burning passion for 'Peter Pan' all my life. Although I can't remember a time when I didn't know the story, I didn't carry around with me an ambition to one day write the sequel. Geraldine McCaughrean day me time life It isn't that I don't tackle issues; it's just that they're secondary to giving somebody an escape route from the banal routine of everyday life. Geraldine McCaughrean escape just giving life
