R. L. Stine

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 set a goal for myself everyday when I write - 10 pages a day - and it's much harder because I'm too dumb to turn off my Twitter and everything so it's always on and it's a real distraction. It's a major distraction.

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.

Making my class laugh and getting in trouble. I was the class clown.

Kids think you just sit down and start writing. I always tell them you never do that.

When I write for kids, I have to make sure they know what can't happen. They have to know it's a fantasy. But when I write for adults, they have to think it's real. Every detail has to be real or they won't buy it.

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.

I got the chance to do things that I dreamed of when I was a kid: I got to travel around the world; I had my own 'Goosebumps' attraction at Disney World; I've been on TV and had three TV series.

When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called 'Tales From The Crypt' and 'The Vault of Horror.' They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous.

I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I would never miss any of the comic books. I had practically no hair when I was a kid!

I feel happy to terrify kids.

I've lived in New York for 40 years. I came right after college.