Laura Hillenbrand Quotes

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Laura Hillenbrand

Profession : Author

Birth : May 15, 1967

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

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

I had been writing professionally since 1988.

Laura Hillenbrand

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

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

Having a lot of people suddenly depending on me to get the job done was a marvelous motivator. The book and movie deals seemed to flip a switch in my head, and off I went.

Laura Hillenbrand

But with nonfiction, the task is very straightforward: Do the research, tell the story.

Laura Hillenbrand

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

I've used a cellphone exactly twice. Things move on. The world changes. And I don't know it.

Laura Hillenbrand

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

I got sick when I was 19, and I'd been a really healthy 19-year-old, so I don't have a lot to compare it to. Does it feel like the pain after you give birth? I don't know.

Laura Hillenbrand

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

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

While it's really hard to do, at the same time, I'm escaping my body, which I really want to do. I'm living someone else's life. I get very intensely into the story, into the interviews and the research. I'm experiencing things along with my subjects. I have a freedom I don't have in my physical life.

Laura Hillenbrand

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

I'm attracted to subjects who overcome tremendous suffering and learn to cope emotionally with it.

Laura Hillenbrand

For 'Seabiscuit', I interviewed 100 people I never met.

Laura Hillenbrand

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