An interview between Ruth Maxey (2002) and Tom Perrotta, published in Literature Film Quarterly, explored the challenges between writing a novel and a screenplay and the reasons for differences between the two. Perrotta spoke about being a part of the screen adaptations of three of his novels, Little Children, Election, and The Abstinence Teacher. Perrotta mentioned that sometimes what looks good on the page does not always translate as beautifully onscreen, which causes adjustments to be made. Perrotta also explained that though an author is the creator of the original work he does not have any bearing on the production unless the author takes part in writing the screenplay. On the set of Election, Perrotta was known only as the author of the book and has no real authority over what happened on set. That being said, it is unreasonable to expect every detail from the book to be directly translated into the movie.…show more content… Though he tried to be open-minded, he does say it “can be highly tense when someone’s telling you that the line you wrote isn’t quite sharp enough or funny enough” (p. 270). Although, as the author of the book, Perrotta desired the movie adaptation to be as successful as possible and thus had to be willing to make sacrifices for the good of the movie. Despite the compromises made during the process, Little Children the movie had scenes that disappointed Perrotta. He learned that there was not a hard and fast rule about what to keep and what not to keep when writing a screenplay based on a book. He also learned the importance of collaboration. Perrotta’s status as the original author did not outweigh Field’s status as one who was learned in