In 2008, my one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Sophia, suffered a grand mal seizure. It came from nowhere, for no apparent reason, and took hold of my little fairy-girl. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I don’t look at stories in genres. A good story is a good story, no matter what planet it happens on, whether the characters are mice or human or whatever. That’s how I look at it. – Tony DiTerlizzi
When you’re in elementary school, you get these amazing assignments, like to come up with your own animal, come up with your own city, come up with your own planet, what do the people look like; you’re very much encouraged to be as imaginative as possible. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I’d love to be an astronaut. I bet you get a better understanding of our planet seeing it from a distance. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I loved stories as a kid, both being read to me and enjoying on my own. All these stories inspired my imagination, and that’s what I have always aimed at doing for my readers: ignite their imaginations. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I get ideas from everywhere: movies, books, movies, nature – it comes into my brain, it sits there for a while, and it starts coming back out. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I would love having Winnie-the-Pooh stay here at the house. We could talk of food and what we were eating next. Maybe ponder that over a little morsel… and then take a little nap and dream of desserts. – Tony DiTerlizzi
When I see how fast technology is advancing, my mind thinks of evolution and how organisms also have to evolve or adapt in order to, in their case, survive. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I think, in real life, when we’re facing death – that is, when we come out on the other side of it, whether it’s death of a friend or a family member – you come out on the other side of the mourning cherishing your life that much more. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I never want to dumb it down. If there’s any simplification, it’s just a simplification to make sure that the reader understands the point that the character is trying to make. – Tony DiTerlizzi
If you want the beautiful moments to shine, you have to contrast that with dark and gruesome moments. That’s the way life is. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I must confess that although I am quite passionate about the books I create for children, I am not the best oral storyteller. In fact, I stink at it. – Tony DiTerlizzi
If I rewind back to that period, I was 8 in 1977 when ‘Star Wars’ was in theaters. I saved up money, or my parents got me the ‘Art of Star Wars’ book. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I want my stories to be understood and enjoyed by anyone, so I need ‘beta-readers’ who will tell me when the plot is working or not working, and when my writing is concise or vague. – Tony DiTerlizzi
When you hear the words ‘magic’ and ‘story’, they will probably evoke thoughts of your favourite fairy tales from childhood. Storybook pages abound with all manner of magic: fantastical fairies, wish-granting genies, or even a certain boy wizard. – Tony DiTerlizzi
The most challenging and exciting aspect is the outline and formation of the plot points. This is the stage where the notion of the story begins to take shape, and I can see glimpses of what is to come. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I love books, and I love to read, and I had ideas for books that I thought would be neat to read. – Tony DiTerlizzi
With the success of ‘Spiderwick,’ it’s allowed me to be able to have the freedom to really be able to tell the stories that I really wanted to tell, that I’ve always wanted to tell. – Tony DiTerlizzi
In some ways, you kind of take a personality and drop it on the ground, and it breaks into a bunch of little pieces, and you kind of water those pieces, and it grows into characters. So they’re all me in a way. – Tony DiTerlizzi
When I was a kid, I loved to draw, and I was lucky because I had parents and teachers and grown-ups around who recognised and encouraged that. – Tony DiTerlizzi
My outlines can be 10-20 pages in length and focus primarily on the physical active plot over the emotional plot. – Tony DiTerlizzi
I think I’ve got a decent imagination. I hope some of my stories inspire other young imaginations. – Tony DiTerlizzi
The exciting thing about doing art for someone else’s story is how I can translate their world through pictures, and that’s always a pretty big challenge. – Tony DiTerlizzi
