Words I Wish I Wrote: A Collection of Writing That Inspired My Ideas Book

Robert Fulghum's books All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, Uh-Oh, Maybe (Maybe Not) and From Beginning to End have struck a chord with readers everywhere, making him one of the bestselling authors of our time with six New York Times bestsellers in a row. There are currently more than 14 million copies of these books in print in 27 languages and 93 countries.

In Words I Wish I Wrote, Fulghum reveals the works of writers who have inspired him. As he says, "When I look deep beneath my declarations I see the underlying thoughts of others. As hard as I have tried to speak in my own voice, I realize now that nothing I have said is original or unique. My expressions echo and imitate the statements of others. Thought is forever being revived, recycled and renewed. I have found that someone else has always been this way before me. And they have spoken of the way in words I wish I had written, in language I could not improve upon."

The confirming statements, quotes and credos that influenced Fulghum through the years are collected here, organized thematically into such sections as Companions, God, Bene-Dictions, Contra-Dictions, Simplify and Believe. Each section begins with a short introductory essay by Fulghum followed by inspiring passages drawn from a diverse group of sources, from Jerry Garcia to Albert Camus, Dylan Thomas to Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust to Beatrix Potter. In addition, at the end of each section, Fulghum offers readers his own personal commentary on the sources.