For a while I thought it might be a particular fascination in countries where skeletons have been found-a kind of nationalistic interest. But dinosaurs seem to excite the imagination of both adults and children everywhere in the world.ĭuring the last few years, I have entertained many theories about why this is so. Why does it happen? What is going on in that child’s mind, shouting out those complex Latin names? I have thought about it a great deal and I conclude I have no idea why it occurs. To go to a museum and see a young child, barely able to walk and talk, shrieking “stegosaurus” and “tyrannosaurus” as they see the creatures, is a very striking thing.

I suspect children have always been fascinated by dinosaurs. Finally I realized that the fascination with dinosaurs was permanent. I first started writing the book in 1981, and I put the project aside because at that time, there seemed to be an enormous mania about dinosaurs in America, and I did not want to book to appear to ride a current fashion. They said, “I want this to be a story for me.” Meaning for an adult. I wrote another draft, but the result remained the same.įinally one of the readers said that they were irritated with the story because they wanted it to be from an adult point of view, not a kid point of view. Whatever I had done in the latest draft, it hadn’t helped. I got angry reactions such as, “Why would you write a book like this?” But when I asked them to explain exactly why they hated it, they couldn’t put their finger on anything in particular. They were all in agreement: they hated Jurassic Park. Over the years, I’ve come to rely on five or six people who read my drafts generally they have a range of responses.

I then sent the book to the usual people who read my first drafts. Finally I decided on a theme park setting, and wrote a novel from the point of view of a young boy who was present when the dinosaurs escaped. I worked on it for several years since, trying to make it more credible. I wrote a screenplay about cloning a pterodactyl from fossil DNA in 1983, but the story wasn’t convincing.

Jurassic park by michael crichton