How to be a writer: Authors reveal their influences

“The Catcher in the Rye.” I was about fifteen. Till then most of my reading had been purely escapist entertainment. Catcher was a window into a whole other realm of possibility -- with regard to what a novel could be. -- Kem Nunn, author of the surf noir novel “Chance” (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

April 9, 2014 10:44 AM PT

Share via
- Email
- Facebook
- X
- LinkedIn
- Threads
- Reddit
- WhatsApp

We surveyed about 200 authors who will be attending this year’s L.A. Times Festival of Books, asking them about their lives as writers. One thing we wanted to know was what books influenced them. The answers were varied -- about as many cited “Harriet the Spy” as did “War and Peace” - and their explanations were fascinating. Here are some of the most interesting responses to the questions “What book or author inspired you to be a writer?” and “Of the works you were assigned to read in school, what was your favorite?”

“The Catcher in the Rye,” because it was probably the first book we’d ever been assigned that had such an accessibly snarky protagonist. -- Jessica Morgan, co-author of the YA novel “Messy” (Lori Shepler / Los Angeles Times)

I was that coffee drinking, cigarette smoking, black clothes wearing, skinny, pale “The Wasteland”-reading T.S. Eliot wannabe -- and this was in Miami Beach. -- Annabelle Gurwitch, actress and author of “I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50” (Monica Schipper / Getty Images)

I read nothing in school. I began to read in college when I got a job reading for a blind woman -- Stephen Tobolowsky, actor and author of the book “The Dangerous Animals Club” (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

“Catch-22.” It was brilliant and funny and cultivated a much-needed adolescent sense of irony. My fourteen year old son is currently reading it, and I hear him laughing out loud in the quiet of his room. -- David Grand, author of the novel “Mount Terminus” (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

“Crime and Punishment.” Dostoevsky depicts the life of a murderer in a way that felt so right, and so just. It was refreshing to read a novel where killing another human being was not glorified or simplified, but treated with gravity. -- Tahereh Mafi, author of the YA novel “Ignite Me” (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Probably “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I loved it because it had great characters and a tough, tomboy protagonist -- and because, in addition to all its love and humor, it had consequence and heft. -- Nina Revoyr, author of “Wingshooters” (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Books