A screenwriter heard me read from my novel 'The Wishbones' when it was still in progress and mentioned me to some producers in Hollywood. They called, and I told them I had a novel in my drawer about a high school election that goes haywire. They asked to take a look, and my life changed pretty dramatically as a result.
Tom PerrottaIt just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.
Tom PerrottaMeg was going to have to learn for herself what Laurie had figured out over the summer - that it was better to leave well enough alone, to avoid unnecessary encounters with the people you'd left behind, to not keep poking at that sore tooth with the tip of your tongue. Not because you didn't love them anymore, but because you did, and because that love was useless now, just another dull ache in your phantom limb.
Tom PerrottaThe lesson you have to learn as novelist is how to be collaborative, and how to say, "I don't get to dictate this."
Tom Perrotta