But when you read books you almost feel like you're out there in the world. Like you're going on this adventure right with the main character. At lea…

- Matt De La Pena

Being the first to go to college in my family was a great thing, but it was also a source of guilt. I felt like almost a sellout going to college.

- Matt De La Pena

As an author, you go into the school, it gets written about in the paper. It sucks that your book was banned, but you almost benefit from it. The bum…

- Matt De La Pena

When I'm there, it's pure silence. There are other writers there, too, and I get super competitive. I have this weird fear that some guy next to me i…

- Matt De La Pena

When I was in school, I was very much into just sports, mostly basketball, and didn't really see myself as much of a student. But once I got into col…

- Matt De La Pena

Whenever I teach writing I tell them to never revise as you go. Finish the first draft. This is my writing advice. I can't do that myself. I'm lying …

- Matt De La Pena

People always think there's this huge hundred-foot-high barrier that separates doing good from doing bad. But there's not. There's nothing. There's n…

- Matt De La Pena

Once I start writing, I am a huge reviser. To me writing is revising. I probably turn over every sentence that I write, to see if I have the rhythm r…

- Matt De La Pena

Growing up as a mixed-race kid myself, when you are in the middle of it and you're young...you don't think about it consciously. It's your reality.

- Matt De La Pena