I Want Young People To Be Hesitant

You Cannot Live This Life Anymore Without The Ability To Read.

We’re Suggesting That [kids Are] Missing Something If They Don’t Read But, Actually, We’re Condemning Kids To A Lesser Life. If You Had A Sick Patient, You Would Not Try To Entice Them To Take Their Medicine. You Would Tell Them, ‘take This Or You’re Going To Die.’ We Need To Tell Kids Flat Out: Reading Is Not Optional.

I Joined The Army On My Seventeenth Birthday, Full Of The Romance Of War After Having Read A Lot Of World War I British Poetry And Having Seen A Lot Of Post-world War Ii Films. I Thought The Romantic Presentations Of War Influenced My Joining And My Presentation Of War To My Younger Siblings.

With My Writing, What I Want To Do Is Humanize The Young People I Write About.

I Was Teased If I Brought My Books Home. I Would Take A Paper Bag To The Library And Put The Books In The Bag And Bring Them Home. Not That I Was That Concerned About Them Teasing Me - Because I Would Hit Them In A Heartbeat. But I Felt A Little Ashamed, Having Books.