Did you take inspiration from/research any particular poetry when writing Ingrid's poetry? You mention Dante and reference a wide range of other authors; did you read up on this in advance to decide what sorts of poetry Ingrid would have known about and liked? The poet who informed Ingrid's voice the most was Anne Sexton. I'm a huge Sexton fan, I hear [Ingrid's] tone very much like that. But no, I didn't read up or research these authors, I heard them, they're like music inside me. Ingrid was aware of the entire canon, she was an educated woman, it was all already there. I knew, I could feel, who she would be attracted to, who she would embody. This article is about the book. For the 2002 movie, see White Oleander (film). For other uses, see Oleander (disambiguation). White Oleander

From our mouths‚ to writing and finally to film‚ the way we tell stories has evolved over time and I must say thank God for its advancements. Reading a book can be nice but thanks to movies all the work of deciphering the message of the story is done through the director of the motion picture. He is responsible for researching the story to find the intent of the writers and will often consult with the writer to bring you the true meaning of the story. The director brings theAlways learn poems by heart. They have to become the marrow in your bones. Like fluoride in the water, they'll make your soul impervious to the world's soft decay.” Thank you for accepting my friend request. I am honoured of being friends on Goodreads and I want to tell you how much I enjoyed reading White Oleander. It is such a beautiful book. Ingrid Magnusson is sent

Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you'll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.”

Movie Trailer (2002):

It is too real, too raw, to conform to anyone’s preconceived notion of beauty. And yet Fitch makes it sing, with her beautiful, simple words. At the beginning of her first real encounter with calamity‚ Astrid is inundated with a deluge of emotions‚ leaving her dazed. It is during this time

I looked into her determined face, cheekbones like razors, her eyes making me believe. "I was afraid you'd be mad at me." She would be half a planet away, floating in a turquoise sea, dancing by moonlight to flamenco guitar.” What keeps "White Oleander" from devolving into a television mini-series is Ms. Fitch's aptitude for delineating Astrid's inner life, for showing us the pull she feels between her mother (and her mother's destructive impulses) and her own need for independence; for showing us her craving for family and the slowly dawning recognition that she must invent herself. The resulting novel is frequently obvious and over the top but at the same time oddly haunting.” Astrid Magnussen: the main character, she is twelve years old when the novel opens. Artistic, shy and in the sway of her manipulative mother. The novel depicts her loss of naivety, sexual awakening, and attempts at self-definition.Michiko Kakutani - April 30, 1999 - The New York Times - http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/25/daily/042999fitch-book-review.html Okay, it was melodramatic, but that's part of what made it good. It's about this blonde shorty with a crazy, really horrid white witch of a psycho blonde poet mother, who is scorned by this chumpy-seeming LA cheeseball in a Hawaiian shirt, and hell hath no fury like a psycho poet lady, the mom kills guy, goes to prison, blah blah blah.... So the kid, Astrid -- or maybe Ingrid? -- I forget -- winds up in foster care, and the book is her bouncing around from LA foster home to foster home and experiencing, as my own mother put it, all these different types of moms. There are different ways to get a story from different sources in modern times. Books have been good sources for stories‚ but movies are getting more popular and have the same story with the books. Why people still reading books; and others are prefer watching the movies? Reading books and watching movies have a lot in common‚ but there are some differences that makes the readers remain faithful to reading books. Reading books and watching movies are similar because they are telling the same story. They