Writer

King Arthur was one of my heroes - I played with a trash can lid for a knightly shield and my uncle's cane for the sword Excalibur.

After high school, I worked as a messenger boy at a local bank. I was miserable. I felt like Robin Hood chained in the Sheriff of Nottingham's dungeon. As a would-be writer, I thought it was a catastrophe. As a bank employee, I could barely add or subtract and had to count on my fingers.

In whatever guise - our own daily nightmares of war, intolerance, inhumanity or the struggles of an Assistant Pig-Keeper against the Lord of Death - the problems are agonizingly familiar. And an openness to compassion, love, and mercy is as essential to us here and now as it is to any inhabitant of an imaginary kingdom.

Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it.

I'm impossible when a book is taking shape. Well, actually, I'm despicable.

Perhaps one reason we are fascinated by cats is because such a small animal can contain so much independence, dignity, and freedom of spirit. Unlike the dog, the cat's personality is never bet on a human's. He demands acceptance on his own terms.

From as far back as I can remember, I always loved the King Arthur stories, fairy tales, mythology - things like that. So it was very natural for me when I came to write the 'Prydain' books to sort of follow that direction.

I first wrote for adults, but when I started writing for young people, it was the most creative and liberating experience of my life. I was able to express my own deepest feelings far more than I ever could when writing for adults.

I used the imaginary kingdom not as a sentimentalized fairyland but as an opening wedge to express what I hoped would be some very hard truths.

Heroes are people who think more of others than themselves. This is not to say that they don't think of themselves. They do. They certainly do. But they think of others more.

My family pleaded with me to forget literature and do something sensible, such as find some sort of useful work.

Children's literature is as valid an art form as any other.

If writers learn more from their books than do readers, perhaps I may have begun to learn.

My imagination can do whatever it wants to do. This gives me a great sense of freedom.

I had always been interested in mythology. I suppose my brief stay in Wales during World War II influenced my writing, too. It was an amazing country. It has marvelous castles and scenery.

I never have found out all I want to know about writing and realize I never will.

I didn't know if I'd be good with children. Actually talking with them, I mean. But I am good with them.

There's this huge number of desperate people.

Oh, my parents never cracked a book, just newspapers.

After seven years of writing - and working many jobs to support my family - I finally got published.