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" I have to detach myself completely from aspirations. I hardly ever listen to music anymore because it arouses all of this yearning in me. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Listen
Music
Me
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" Since signing with Universal, I have been working closely with Gary Ross, the director, producer and screenwriter. We have spent many hours on the phone, and I've been sending him information and items that have been useful to the writing process. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Phone
Information
Writing
" For me, being a writer was never a choice. I was born one. All through my childhood I wrote short stories and stuffed them in drawers. I wrote on everything. I didn't do my homework so I could write. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Childhood
Short
Me
" I had been writing professionally since 1988. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Been
Writing
Since
" I identified in a very deep way with the individuals I was writing about because the theme that runs through this story is of extraordinary hardship and the will to overcome it. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Overcome
Hardship
Deep
" My illness is excruciating and difficult to cope with. It takes over your entire life and causes more suffering than I can describe. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Life
Over
Suffering
" My agent and I put out my proposal one Thursday afternoon in August, 1998. Publishers started bidding immediately, and that process progressed for a few days. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Started
Days
Out
" I was starstruck and completely confused; making a film of this story hadn't even occurred to me, and I hadn't written a single line of the book yet. I had no idea how this man knew anything about my book proposal. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Book
Story
Me
" I was 8 years old when I went across the street from my house to a fair, and they always had a used book sale. For a quarter I bought a book called 'Come On Seabiscuit.' I loved that book. It stayed with me all those years. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Street
Loved
House
" I've used a cellphone exactly twice. Things move on. The world changes. And I don't know it. "
Laura Hillenbrand
World
Know
Changes
" It only worked for a little while; the morning after I agreed to go with Universal, an article came out in the Hollywood trade papers, and the secret was out. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Trade
Go
Hollywood
" People think I must have been turning cartwheels on the night I sealed the movie deal - which was only two days after sealing the book deal - but I was really quite terrified. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Days
Two
Think
" Honestly, I expected to get a cold reception because of my subject matter. But when editors took a look at the story I had to tell, and saw that this was not a parochial story at all, they really warmed to it. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Story
Matter
Look
" I'm looking for a way out of here. I can't have it physically, so I'm going to have it intellectually. It was a beautiful thing to ride Seabiscuit in my imagination. And it's just fantastic to be there alongside Louie as he's breaking the NCAA mile record. People at these vigorous moments in their lives - it's my way of living vicariously. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Ride
Imagination
People
" Most people, when they hear the disease name, it's all they know about it. It sounds so mild. When I first was sick, for the first 10 years or so, I was dismissed. I was ridiculed and told I was lazy. It was a joke. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Sick
People
Name
" I am disabled, so I can't travel, and I have not been to any development meetings, but Gary and the others affiliated with the film keep me updated on everything. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Travel
Development
I Am
" This disease leaves people bedridden. I've gone through phases where I couldn't roll over in bed. I couldn't speak. To have it called 'fatigue' is a gross misnomer. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Gone
Bed
Disease
" I'm attracted to subjects who overcome tremendous suffering and learn to cope emotionally with it. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Who
Cope
Learn
" Louie and Seabiscuit were both Californians and both on the sports pages in the 1930s. I was fascinated. When I learned about his World War II experiences, I thought, 'If this guy is still alive, I want to meet him.' "
Laura Hillenbrand
Alive
War
Thought
" In terms of writing about horses, I fell backwards into that. I was intent on getting a Ph.D., becoming a professor, and writing on history but I got sick 14 years ago when I was 19. Getting sick derailed that plan completely. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Writing
History
Backwards
" And at that point, I think my experience in covering the subject helped me. I think editors felt comfortable with the idea of me telling this story because I had demonstrated that I know this business pretty well. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Story
Business
Experience
" I think if I had been writing fiction, where the work is entirely dependent on the writer's creativity and the potential directions the narrative might take are infinite, I might have frozen. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Creativity
Think
Work
" The following Wednesday, I opted to go with Random House. "
Laura Hillenbrand
House
Following
Random
" For 'Seabiscuit', I interviewed 100 people I never met. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Met
People
Never
" I am actually in poor health due to chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, and my ability to work is greatly diminished right now, so I have to get better before I can start another big project. "
Laura Hillenbrand
I Can
Work
Start
" But with nonfiction, the task is very straightforward: Do the research, tell the story. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Story
Research
Task
" The biggest problem has been exhaustion. I've spent about 6 of the last 14 years completely bedridden. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Problem
Been
Last
" Books on horse racing subjects have never done well, and I am told that publishers had come to think of them as the literary version of box office poison. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Poison
Think
Racing
" I lived for four years in the 1930s with these individuals and the only time that I wasn't thinking about dealing with physical suffering is when I was working on this book. I've never been more alive as when I worked on this book. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Book
Time
Thinking
" Fatigue is what we experience, but it is what a match is to an atomic bomb. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Atomic Bomb
Match
Fatigue
" I look at the film as an opportunity to see some bountifully creative minds do something that I could not do - tell the story with images. I can't wait to see what they do. "
Laura Hillenbrand
Creative
Look
Opportunity