I never doubted my talent. If talent was the circus, then I was its ringmaster and audience, applauding its every move. Philip Schultz More Quotes by Philip Schultz More Quotes From Philip Schultz I eventually just imagined being a little boy who was quote unquote 'normal': who could learn like all the kids around me that I felt excluded from. And I imagined myself into one of these and into someone who could read. Philip Schultz boy someone myself me If I get the idea, and I get some clarity on how I feel about that idea, then I can safely assume I'll find the right words. I do have that confidence. Philip Schultz words feel confidence i-can Suddenly, I was reading these comics. I was looking at those bubbles, those dialogue bubbles, and suddenly there were words... recognizable words. Philip Schultz words looking dialogue reading Most people try to avoid cliches. It's my ambition in life to try to get 'em right! Philip Schultz try ambition life people My imagination was a great place to escape from all the anxiety and disapproval of my life... I had to live in my head... art was a way of making myself feel better. Philip Schultz my-life myself life art I think one's relationship with one's vulnerability is a very delicate and precious relationship. Most people try to hide, disguise that vulnerability, and in doing that, you, I think, diminish a great source of power. Philip Schultz you power relationship people I was well into middle age when one of my children, then in the second grade, was found to be dyslexic. I had never known the name for it, but I recognized immediately that the symptoms were also mine. Philip Schultz name never age children Repeating third grade at a new school, after having been asked to leave my old one for hitting kids who made fun of my perceived stupidity, I was placed in the 'dummy class.' Philip Schultz new stupidity fun school I not only couldn't read but often couldn't hear or understand what was being said to me - by the time I'd processed the beginning of a sentence, the teacher was well on her way through a second or third. Philip Schultz beginning me time teacher I found many ways around my dyslexia, but I still have trouble transforming words into sounds. I have to memorize and rehearse before reading anything aloud to avoid embarrassing myself by mispronouncing words. Philip Schultz words myself reading trouble I think I was 16 when I had the thought of maybe being a writer. And this is complicated, something I only now understand, because when I was young, having dyslexia and not knowing it made reading such an ordeal. Philip Schultz understand think not-knowing reading I didn't learn how to read until I was at the end of fifth grade and 11 years old and held back. Philip Schultz old end how back The word 'novel' carries, for me, a weight as ominous, all-consuming and unforgiving as any Job encountered. Philip Schultz job me novel weight I was 17 when I decided to write stories as big as cathedrals, overflowing with the kind of memorable and audacious characters Walker Percy, Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow created. Philip Schultz write big kind memorable With my fiction, I focused on chapters and overall conceptions, while in poetry, I crawled along in the trenches of each sentence, examining every word for a sign of a deeper significance. Philip Schultz sentence sign focused poetry I'd grown accustomed to seeing myself as someone who, if fallible and unworthy, had nevertheless managed to do one thing well enough to get recognition for it. Philip Schultz someone myself recognition enough
