On why we're afraid of monsters under the bed You know, these characters on some days were as real to me as as anyone I was passing in the street. I have to say, when you throw yourself into a book - even more than a movie, quite frankly, because I've done both - it becomes very real to you, even the very notion of what is real and what is imaginary changes as you throw yourself into all these pages.

And that voice and the ability to feel it, and maybe the ability to read better, and to know numbers better and to understand maybe what people are feeling, little by little, bit by bit these powers come to him, and he doesn't know if it's real or if it's imaginary. As if it's somebody real that is his imaginary friend. And he sees this white plastic bag on the ground and he picks it up, and he starts talking to the white plastic bag. And there's this one moment I'll never forget when, you know, he walks into the woods late at night, where there's this tree. He comes out, and there is a voice, a presence that he feels. it becomes very real to you, even the very notion of what is real and what is imaginary changes as you throw yourself into all these pages.

But I always loved him, and always loved the idea of this kind of wild kid. He moved away to Appleton, Wisconsin and I lost touch with him. And Eric, I'll never forget, he drove his father's car, when he was I think three years old, across the street and into the neighbor's yard. he's loosely, loosely based on this boy that I knew as a little, little kid, named Eric Olson, who lived up the street. And a 10 year journey later I have all the answers.Įddie, that they all call Special Ed. And I wanted to know where that cloud was going, and I wanted to know why it was going, and I wanted to know what was behind it.

So he says, 'If you can hear me, blink your left eye.' And the cloud slowly does, unblinks, and then it floats away. And he says to the cloud, 'Hello, can you hear me?' And there's a little thunderclap in the distance that could be a coincidence. And then I thought of this moment outside of his school, where he's all alone and the last of the buses pull away, and he looks up - and what was a small face is now almost as big as the sky. Movies The Pangs And 'Perks' Of High School, Revisited

The imaginary friend book