CECIL CASTELLUCCI: So I knew that I wanted to be a writer from the moment that I saw the movie "Star Wars." When I saw "Star Wars," I was seven years old. And let me preface that it was "Star Wars, Episode 4, A New Hope," that at the end of the movie, the Death Star blows up and Darth Vader goes spinning off into outer space. And it was the first moment-- I jumped up in the movie theater and I grabbed my dad, and I was like, there's going to be another movie! And it was the first moment that I knew that stories could continue and that it was someone's job to write that story. And that was sort of the moment that I knew that that was what I wanted to dedicate my life to. And I feel like it was a calling in a way. And so stories became my whole life.
And I always loved books, but I just was more in love with stories. I write comic books. I write young adult novels. I write short stories. I write films. I write performance art pieces. I write librettos for operas. So for me, the way that I'm telling a story, the story tells me how it wants to be told, but I'm in love with stories. So at that moment, seeing "Star Wars" was the moment that I knew I wanted to write forever, and ever, and ever. And I basically declared my life, all art, all the time from that moment on for ill or will because it's not easy calling.