A note
Help me gain some
book wGS
Dear Reader,
It is very difficult for me to write about myself, and especially The
Outsiders, which was written at a horrendous time in my life, was
published by a series of mind-boggling synchronicities, and has
gone further than any author dared dream. But I'll give it a shot.
I wrote The Outsiders when I was sixteen years old. Actually I
began it when I was fifteen, as a short story about a boy who was
beaten up on his way home from the movies.
But I didn't just write The Outsiders, I lived it. Looking back, I
realize how important it was to me to have another life at that
time. To be someone else. To deal with problems I had to face, She
and write my way to some sort of understanding and coping Jay
This is all in hindsight. At the time, I was mad about the social
situation in my high school. I desperately wanted something to
read that dealt realistically with teen-age life.
I knew I was going to be a writer. I love to write. I began in
grade school, because I loved to read, and liked the idea of making
stories happen the way I wanted them to. By the time I was in
high school I had been practicing for years. So I was both elated
and not surprised when I received my publishing contract on the
day I graduated from high school.
The Outsiders has taken me many places I never dreamed of
going. It introduced me to people I would never otherwise have
met. Although the names Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Matt
Dillon, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, and
Ralph Macchio are familiar to most people, and conjure visions
of movie stars and glamour, I remember a group of sweet, goofy,
incredibly talented and at the same time incredibly normal teen-
age boys. I was involved in every aspect of filming the movie
version of The Outsiders, and the memory I cherish most is of
hanging out with "my boys."
wrsica