Quotes from Rebecca Serle

Every writer, no matter published, unpublished, award-winning, or bestselling, faces insecurity. It crops up everywhere and, in my personal experience, nearly every day. It's just a part of the process.

I first moved to New York, like many twenty-somethings before me, to be a grown up. I was attending an MFA program in the city, starting work at a nonfiction imprint at a reputable publishing house, and excited about being on track to becoming the writer I had always wanted to be.

I used to think that if I was ever so lucky as to get a book deal that I would write all the time. All day, every day. I'd write three books a year. The truth, though, is that writing all day isn't really feasible. I could do it, but I'd be folding in on a lot of other aspects of my life, things I care about. And I wouldn't be happy.

If you want to be a writer, first and foremost, you must write. If you write, you're a writer. Period.

The first thing I thought when I finished Ernest Cline's 'Ready Player One' was, 'My God, it's the grown-up's 'Harry Potter.'' Now this is from a mega 'HP' fan, so I mean business, here.

I think that one of the reasons Shakespeare withstands the test of time is that his themes are so universal.

I always say being a writer is the best gig around. I love it.

It takes a lot for a show to withstand the test of time.

You don't write a book. You write a sentence and then a paragraph and then a page and then a chapter. Looking at writing 400 plus pages or seventy thousand odd words is incredibly daunting, but if you just focus on the immediate picture - say, 500 words - it's not so overwhelming.

I'm a total fangirl for Nancy Meyers. I love all her movies - 'Something's Gotta Give,' 'Father of the Bride,' 'The Parent Trap,' etc. I also love Woody Allen - 'Annie Hall' and 'Manhattan' are my favorites.

I get asked a lot what books I recommend for a nursery, home library, etc., and I always tell parents to start with what they loved as children, what they want to share, and broaden out from there.

'When You Were Mine' is about heartbreak.

'The Borrowers' is the story of tiny people who live beneath the floorboards of houses and borrow from the occupants. I may have tried to pull up a plank or two because of it.

I was lucky to have made it to 23 before my world fell apart, but when it did, I had no idea how to survive. It was a rough year. I cried - a lot. I complained - a lot. I also wrote - a lot.

Children's authors have to pick words that reflect the spirit of a book and convey its message but also words that light children up, that children will recognize. Words that inspire and comfort. Words that challenge yet don't patronize. Words that, well, mean something to them.

By refusing to lend a hand, we are not only robbing our colleagues and peers of the opportunity to gain guidance, but we are also robbing ourselves of the opportunity to lead.

I have often said that I think children's books are like poetry. Finding the exact right words to tell a story is something all writers, regardless of genre, are challenged to do, but it is in children's that the art of selection really becomes an art.

So many tend to brand the Internet as the downfall of youth, but 'Ready Player One' hints that it's more complicated than that.

The truth is there are people who love horror movies. I don't happen to be one of those people.

I really am so grateful to get to do what it is I love - build worlds. Most of my job is playing make-believe, getting to know the people in my head, and letting them help me tell their stories.

American fantasy is not a genre we think about too often. Sure, we are familiar with the worlds of English boarding school houses and castles and fairies, but true American fantasy, fantasy that is built on the land of this country, is hard to come by.

Part of the job of a children's author is to write books that will be remembered, definitely, but if I might go out on a limb, I will say that the other part, the more important part, is to build books that will help children fall in love with reading. That, to me, is the real job.

I always say it's a shame picture books get such a bad rep. Illustrations are tough to sell older kids on!

I don't watch horror films, because I don't want those images in my psyche, and I resent having them forced on me before a movie of my choosing.