Author: Matt Gilligan / Source: did you know?
You know you love R.L. Stine. We all do! Sometimes called “the Stephen King of children’s literature,” Stine has written hundreds of spooky books for kids, including the Goosebumps and Fear Street series.
Mr. Stine turns 75 this month (isn’t that fitting), so let’s celebrate his incredible body of work with 10 quotes directly from the man himself.
Look at those knowing eyes…
1. On how he got introduced to horror
“[It] was Pinocchio. My mother read it to me every day before naptime when I was three or four. The original Pinocchio is terrifying. First he smashes Jiminy Cricket to death with a wooden mallet. Then he goes to sleep with his feet up on the stove and burns his feet off! I never forgot it!”
2. What scared him as a kid
“I was afraid of lots of things … I had this one fear. I’d have to park my bike in the garage after dark, and I always thought something would be lurking in the garage. I used to take my bike and just throw it in so I wouldn’t have to go in there. That’s a painful way to go through childhood, I think … But in a way, it’s kind of lucky. It helped me out later, because now, when I write these scary books for kids, I can think back to that feeling of panic. I can remember what it felt like, and then I can bring that feeling to my books.”
3. On writing creepy books
“There’s no formula. I think you have to create a very close point of view. You have to be in the eyes of the narrator. Everything that happens, all the smells, all the sounds; then your reader starts to identify with that character and that’s what makes something really scary.”
4. Do you get creeped out?
“People say, ‘Your book keeps giving me chills,’ but I don’t know what that feeling is. Horror…
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