Daniel Handler
Back in the late '90s, a writer named Daniel Handler decided that kids books were too cheerful. I mean, all the "Harry Potter" series did was occasionally kill off major characters. Thus was born "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" and its mysterious author, Lemony Snicket. "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" is now a great new series on Netflix.Collection: Book
I first told the idea to an editor I had met who, after reading one of my novels for adults that was set in a high school, had an idea that I might write something for children.Collection: Children
When you say, "History is written by the winners," you like to think about someone who isn't you. You want to think, "Oh, that's the juggernaut I'm standing against." But you're probably part of it.Collection: Thinking
Like a lot of people whose children were small in the 2000s, I read [Daniel Handler] books out loud and I loved them.Collection: Children
It seems to me that oftentimes in young relationships once there's a problem of some significance then it's almost like they're both racing for the dumper buzzer.Collection: Racing
For every teenager I know, having a phone is a mixed blessing, because your parents can press a button and figure out where you are.Collection: Teenager
Mostly, it's flattering to meet fans. As long as it's in a planned, professional meeting, rather than, say, someone dropping by my home, which is not as pleasant.Collection: Home
My work is very dear to me, and certainly I have had all the emotional highs and lows that go with trying to get it to an audience. But I do have some kind of detachment that seems somewhat unusual in my trade. I'm a writer who writes every day. I don't have a period of months where I can't get anything done and I wander around tearing my hair out. When I come back from a book tour, for instance, I might have one day where I sleep late and then check my e-mail, and then go for a walk, and then the next day I'm really itching to get back at writing a story.Collection: Book
The idea that the curtain rises on what is often more or less a happy scene, and it will fall just a few hours later, and everyone will be dead or have gone mad... I find that kind of narrative very appealing.Collection: Fall
When I wrote Rick, I had the idea that I would take the plot of nearly every opera and turn it into a dark film, which is something I still may do.Collection: Dark
When it was first optioned, I was told that the chances of The Basic Eight becoming a film were slim because no one was making teen movies, and then later, I was told that the chances were slim because there were so many teen movies, and then I was later told that the chances were slim because teen films were over. I'm not sure when the magic window of opportunity was, but perhaps it's still on the horizon.Collection: Opportunity
Adverbs is a book about love, and I thought that was pretty cheerful, but people who are reading it now are telling me that it's actually quite dark.Collection: Book
I wrote a comedy, which hopefully [Rick director] Curtiss Clayton will bring to the screen, that I thought was the antithesis of all my work. I thought it was light and sunshiny, and Mr. Clayton reminded me that it is the story of a woman kidnapped and forced to do things against her will, which is not what most people think of as light and sunshiny.Collection: Thinking
I was never a fan of anything, and yet some people are fans of my books. That's a bit odd. But I like meeting them.Collection: Book
My general writing preface is to write an outline and then ignore about half of it, both on a micro level with the individual book, and on a macro level with the series as a whole, and that's pretty much what's happened.Collection: Book
Like most writers, I look back on all of my finished works with utter regret, and the trouble with writing a series of novels is that you have to go back and read them, and make sure that you haven't forgotten anything you've created, and then when you do that, you're faced with your own mistakes on every trick, from the wrong word in places to entirely the wrong incident.Collection: Regret
One has to adopt a sort of Zen calm, in which you know you wrote the best book that you could at the time.Collection: Book
You might find it difficult to see anything but your own sadness, the way smoke can cover a landscape so that all anyone can see is black. You may find that if someone pours water all over you, you are damp and distracted, but not cured of your sadness, the way a fire department can douse a fire but never recover what has been burnt down.Collection: Sad
The way sadness works is one of the strange riddles of the world. If you are stricken with a great sadness, you may feel as if you have been set aflame, not only because of the enormous pain, but also because your sadness may spread over your life, like smoke from an enormous fire.Collection: Sad
This is like a cookie, it tastes like a cookie having sex with a doughnut.Collection: Sex
One wanders through life as if wandering through a field in the dark of night, wearing a blindfold and very heavy shoes, with a poisonous toad waiting patiently beneath a clump of weeds, knowing full well that eventually you will step on him.Collection: Love
Labor Day is a holiday honoring those who work for a living. Laborious Day is a lesser known holiday honoring those who cannot stop talking about their work.Collection: Holiday
I love no one but you, I have discovered, but you are far away and I am here alone.Collection: Long Distance Relationship
This feeling is not unlike the sinking in one's stomach when one is in an elevator that suddenly goes down, or when you are snug in your bed and your closet door suddenly creaks open to reveal the person who has been hiding there.Collection: Doors
But we can also ask for something we are much more likely to get, and that is to find a person or two, somewhere in our travels, who will tell us that we are noble enough, whether it is true or not. We can ask for someone who will say, “You are noble enough,” and remind us of our good qualities when we have forgotten them, or cast them into doubt.Collection: Two
It is one of the peculiar truths of life that people often say things that they know full well are ridiculous.Collection: People
For Beatrice- When we were together I felt breathless. Now you are.Collection: Together
Every time you enter a library you might say to yourself, "The world is quiet here," as a sort of pledge proclaiming reading to be the greater good.Collection: Reading
It is easy to decide on what is wrong to wear to a party, such as deep-sea diving equipment or a pair of large pillows, but deciding what is right is much trickier.Collection: Party
There are some things we might not know,but that doesnt mean we should give up.We can find out what we need to know.We can find out everythingCollection: Giving Up
Take back the smile and the night, take it all back, I wish I could.Collection: Night
Every last souvenir of the love we had, the prizes & the debris of this relationship, like the glitter in the gutter when the parade has passed, all the everything & whatnot kicked to the curb.Collection: Gutters
Numbersign questionmark you" and "Asterisk exclamation point the world.Collection: Exclamation Points
You may be right,' she said, a phrase which here meant 'I’m wrong, but I don’t have the courage to say so.Collection: Phrases
Every new promise was like something heavy I had to carry, with no place to put anything down.Collection: Promise
Scolding must be very, very fun, otherwise children would be allowed to do it. It is not because children don’t have what it takes to scold. You need only three things, really. You need time, to think up scolding things to say. You need effort, to put these scolding things in a good order, so that the scolding can be more and more insulting to the person being scolded. And you need chutzpah, which is a word for the sort of show-offy courage it takes to stand in front of someone and give them a good scolding, particularly if they are exhausted and sore and not in the mood to hear it.Collection: Children
So you’re reluctant, I said to myself. Many, many people are reluctant. It’s like having feet. It’s nothing to brag about.Collection: Feet
How do you do?" said Violet. "How do you do?" said Klaus. "Odo yow!" said Sunny.Collection: Violet
It is always terrible to be told to go play with people one doesn't know.Collection: Play
...there's nothing wrong with occasionally staring out the window and thinking nonsense, as long as the nonsense is yours.Collection: Thinking
If you have ever slept in a covered casserole dish on the highest peak of a mountain range, then you know that it is an uncomfortable place to lay one's head, even if you find a dish towel inside it that can serve as a blanket.Collection: Mountain Ranges
People who say money doesn’t matter are like people who say cake doesn’t matter—it’s probably because they’ve already had a few slices.Collection: Cake
Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they've been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.Collection: Fall
Money is like a child—rarely unaccompanied. When it disappears, look to those who were supposed to be keeping an eye on it while you were at the grocery store. You might also look for someone who has a lot of extra children sitting around, with long, suspicious explanations for how they got there.Collection: Money
She gave me a hug and for a second I was embraced by a body that makes me want to go home and never eat again.Collection: Home
Life isn't fair," he said, in his undisguised voice, and for once the Baudelaire orphans agreed with every word the man said.Collection: Men
What happens in a certain place can stain your feelings for that location, just as ink can stain a white sheet.Collection: White
I think we'll always miss our parents. But I think we can miss them without being miserable all the time. After all, they wouldn't want us to be miserable.Collection: Thinking
The worst surroundings in the world can be tolerated if the people in them are interesting and kind.Collection: People