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Over

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the years, one of the things that I've

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given an enormous amount of thought to

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is what my responsibilities are as a

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person who creates art.

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It wasn't something I thought about to

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begin with.

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It wasn't until um a man was found dead

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believed to be a suicide

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with a note on his chest saying that the

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Sandman did it and the Sandman would

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bring perfect peace and a copy of

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Sandman by the body that I had to go

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hang on. Did did I do this? What

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happened?

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and I had a very very bad weekend.

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And then

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a few days later,

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I discovered that actually he wasn't it

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wasn't a suicide. He'd been murdered.

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He'd been murdered by his boyfriend who

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had written the note and put the comic

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there to try and make people think that

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this was a Sandman inspired suicide.

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And the boyfriend also killed himself.

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And I was very angry.

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I felt like someone had tried to frame

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me for murder. But I also thought that

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the questions that it raised, what is my

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responsibility

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were huge and important questions.

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And what I decided was

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my responsibility

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is to tell good stories, tell honest

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stories,

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tell them as well as I can. Tell them to

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as many people as I can.

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My responsibility

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is to encapsulate

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as much as I can the things I believe

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and the values that I believe in the

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stories,

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but also

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having a point of view, being willing to

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allow other points of view in to be able

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to allow characters who I might not even

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want to associate with into my fiction

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and to do them justice. Those

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I figure are my responsibility

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and that for me

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has to be there at the bottom of

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everything that I write. So I need to be

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able to point to good omens and say yes

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it's a far it's a silly funny far about

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the end of the world but absolutely it

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has a message I can stand behind. It

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says that human beings have to be

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responsible. We have to fix the world.

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That war is very rarely a good idea. And

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avoiding war, which rarely gets praised,

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actually is huge and important. And that

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really we have to remember that the

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greatest triumphs and the greatest

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tragedies of the human race

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and nothing to do with people being

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basically good or people being basically

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evil. They're all to do with people

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being basically people.

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And so that I can take a fast and I can

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stand behind it. I can say this this is

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something I believe. This is real. I can

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take a book like Coraline

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and say

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it's filled with scary stuff for kids.

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Absolutely. There are people who feel

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that is absolutely and utterly

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inappropriate and kids should be kept

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safe from all the darkness and all the

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terror and all the bad things. And to

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those people I say good luck to you.

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Although I personally believe that if

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you are keeping people, young people

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safe from the darkness, then all you're

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doing is when the darkness shows up, you

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are denying them tools or weapons that

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they might have needed and could have

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had.

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But really, it's a book about bravery.

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It's a book about carrying on.

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And that for me is important. I know I

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can be responsible with that. So, I can

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absolutely stand by, you know, people

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like, "How can you write a book of

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horror for a seven-year-old child?" And

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I can say, "I can do it as best as I

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possibly can because there are kids out

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there who need to know that they'll get

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through this."

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So, you've just finished the class.

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Let me give you some advice.

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The first question that I get asked

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all the time

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is I am an aspiring writer. What should

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I do?

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And I give an answer that is meant

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absolutely seriously and some people

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think it's flippant. It isn't. That

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answer is you should write.

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And some people say yes I am already

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writing

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what should I do now

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and I say you should finish things

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and some people again think I'm joking

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but some people go ah yes you have a

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very good point I should finish things

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and they go off and now they continue to

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write but they start to finish things

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sometimes people need other kinds of

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advice.

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I remember Brian Vaughn

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uh wonderful writer did why the last man

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when he was very young came up to me and

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he said what should I do I want to be a

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writer and

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it isn't happening and I got him to tell

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me a little bit about why it wasn't

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happening for him and what became

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apparent from what he was saying was he

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could write he could finish things. He

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just didn't have anything to say. And I

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said, "Good. So, what you should do?" I

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said, "Look, normally I would tell

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people just to write, just to finish

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things for you,

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go out there into the world. Go get a

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job. Go get fired from a job. Go get

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your heart broken. See as much of the

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world as you can. Find things. Bump into

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things. Get hurt.

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come back in a few years time and you

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will have a lot of things to write

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about.

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And he did. And when he came back and he

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told me the story, he said, "Do you tell

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that to everybody?" And I said, "No, I

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tell it to people every now and again

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when it seems like that's what they

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need." But it is a really good thing to

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remember that the experience is good.

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Reading is fantastic. Read everything

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you can, write everything you can, but

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do a lot of living because everything

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that happens in the living is going to

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wind up in the fiction. It's going to be

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needed. You are going to need every

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human being you ever meet. You're going

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to need everything that you see because

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one day you'll write a story and you'll

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realize that actually you can write this

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story because once

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on a mountaintop in China,

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a little man tried to sell you a pot of

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snow white honey.