CECIL CASTELLUCCI: Well I mean I can talk specifically like my first novel Boy Proof, I was thinking about the boy that I never talked to that sat next to me in math class. And part of the job that I did for making money was being an extra in movies, and I got to try on ape masks for Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes. But I didn't get to be a child ape, which I think was a big mistake on their part.
But I got to be in Rick Baker's studio. And he was a special effects guy, so I kind of put all these things together and did that. For Tin Star and Stone in the Sky, which is my sci-fi novel, I was having a pity party for myself. Having an evening, a little glass of wine, eating a pint of ice cream, watching a black and white movie, Casablanca. And I started thinking about Casablanca and how in the film it's a city that is sort of where everybody is fleeing to, and it doesn't matter what your status is, everybody needs the same thing, an exit visa to get out.
And how Casablanca, the city felt claustrophobic. And I thought what if that were the space station? What if it were in outer space? What if instead of World War II, it were a galactic war that happened? What if Rick were a 16-year-old human girl and everybody else was an alien?
So really it's just this constant being present to the moments that are in your life. And I mean I think that the way that I get ideas is by doing things. Like you have to go to the theater.
You have to go to museums. You have to take walks. You have to have good conversations with your friends. You have to do nothing. You have to binge watch.
You have to nourish your eyeballs and fill your creative bank in every single way because you have no idea where you're going to get an inspiration from. You could go to a medieval castle in Italy and be like, oh my gosh now I have a new idea for a story. Or you could watch your postman trip, and you'd be like, oh my gosh I have an idea for a new story. So you have to be open to whatever sort of coming into your brain.