R. L. Stine

I always just wanted to be funny. I never really planned to be scary.

I love theme parks but I'm a real chicken on rides. I'd rather invent scary rides for my books than go on them for real.

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

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 have a great office.

I do like a lot of things that a lot of adults would scoff at. 'SpongeBob SquarePants,' 'Looney Tunes.'

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.

So many people in their 20s and 30s, on Twitter, say 'Please write something for us,' so I have to listen to them, they're my audience.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I haven't written a young-adult book in years. I'm also doing six 'Goosebumps' books a year now.

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

I drive a lot in the summertime, but after that, I don't drive if there's snow predicted for anywhere in 500 miles.

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

I should be concentrating on writing pages.

It's hard for children's authors to be accepted when they try to write adult books. J.K. Rowling is the exception because people are so eager to read anything by her, but it took Judy Blume three or four tries before she had a success.

Normally, I spend a week on the outline and take two weeks to write the book.

I've made myself laugh from some ideas - but I've never scared myself.

I've never dreamed of a story idea. I have such boring dreams.

If you do enough planning before you start to write, there's no way you can have writer's block. I do a complete chapter by chapter outline.

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.

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 never turned into a bee - I've never been chased by a mummy or met a ghost. But many of the ideas in my books are suggested by real life.