(This little essay was originally written for the Random House web site.)

I can’t define myself as a writer without mentioning Lenny Horowitz, my high school English teacher. I never called him Mr. Horowitz. He let us call him Lenny.

Lenny sent my world in a completely different direction (and if you’d seen the direction I was going at the time, you’d understand that he was a lifesaver): he taught me to love reading again, and he told me I could write.

(This is one in a series of blogs on frequently asked question that I posted on MySpace when I began that blog.  I’m guessing most of my visitors to this site have not seen them.)

I get a lot of questions about this one. 

Q: What did I think of the movie version of Pay It Forward?

A: I thought the book was better.  Then again, I would, wouldn’t I?

When I say that, just about everybody says the same thing:  "Oh, the book is always better than the movie."  Which leads me to wonder why, as a society in general, we see so many movies and read so few books.  But that’s another rant for another blog.

I have theories as to why the book is always better.