'The Outsiders' died on the vine being sold as a drugstore paperback.

I think that 'The Outsiders' was meant to be written, and I was just picked to write it.

The thing is, the Tulsa experience that I wrote about in 'The Outsiders' is closer to the universal experience than it would be if I wrote it from L.A. or New York. It's an everyman story.

I was a 'young adult' when I wrote 'The Outsiders,' although it was not a genre at the time. It's an interesting time of life to write about, when your ideals get slammed up against reality, and you must compromise.

I go straight from thinking about my narrator to being him.

My goal from being a child was to have a happy home life.