R. L. STINE

It's my job, too, to keep up with pop culture and what the kids are into 'cause you don't want to sound like an old man trying to write for kids. I spend a lot of my time spying on them.

A real New Yorker likes the sound of a garbage truck in the morning.

If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles.

At least I can write.

People always ask, 'How do you write so many books?' And I say, I work a lot. I work six or seven days a week.

I read everywhere. I read every day. I read on the couch with my dog in the afternoon and at night. I try to read at least two to three hours a day. I read only fiction.

Everything that has happened to me has been amazing and surprising.

I guess I'm way too kind and generous, and a saint - if you can believe that!

Most fears are basic: fear of the dark, fear of going down in the basement, fear of weird sounds, fear that somebody is waiting for you in your closet. Those kinds of things stay with you no matter what age.

I have a great office.

Well, when I was 13, for my bar mitzvah I received my first typewriter. And that was special.

I feel that good fantasy will always be in demand. I think children especially need literature that helps them escape from the real world, which is very scary to them right now.

I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I would never miss any of the comic books. I had practically no hair when I was a kid!

Twitter is fun because it lets me stay in touch with all my original readers who grew up with my books. I love hearing from readers instantly on Twitter.

Making my class laugh and getting in trouble. I was the class clown.

I set a goal for myself everyday when I write - 10 pages a day - and it's much harder because I'm too dumb to turn off my Twitter and everything so it's always on and it's a real distraction. It's a major distraction.

I started writing when I was 9 years old. I was like this weird kid who would just stay in my room, typing little funny magazines and drawing comic strips.

When I write, I try to think back to what I was afraid of or what was scary to me, and try to put those feelings into books.

I've lived in New York for 40 years. I came right after college.

When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called 'Tales From The Crypt' and 'The Vault of Horror.' They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous.

I'm obsessed with radio. It's a good start to Sunday morning.

Read. Read. Read. Just don't read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different styles.

I'm a total Disney freak. I want to live in Disney World.

I really wanted to be a cartoonist, and I was in 4th or 5th grade and I would bring my drawings in, and I'd look around, and everyone could draw better than me. Everyone. My drawings were just awful. So that's why I had to write.

Kids think you just sit down and start writing. I always tell them you never do that.