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Q. Did you dream about being a lawyer or novelist when you were a kid?

A. No way! I wanted to play professional baseball, like every kid, from the time I was 6 years old until I was 20. It took a long time for the dream to die—to realize I didn't have the talent to play, which is always difficult to accept.

But you still love baseball.

I sure do. I helped my community [Charlottesville, Virginia] get a baseball park, and spend lots of time cutting the grass, chalking the base lines, and tending to other maintenance chores a ball field needs. I coach my son Ty's Little League team, and have even packed them off to Florida for spring training to help them feel more like the big league players.

How do you uphold your strong belief in Sunday church and a Christian lifestyle in your writing?

>When I started writing, I made the simple decision to keep it clean—based on my Christian faith and a certain lifestyle I'm trying to maintain. I've never been tempted to write otherwise.

How has this commitment been put to the test?

When I agreed to write the screenplay for The Gingerbread Man. By the time my original story went through the director's revisions, it was full of vulgarity that I had not written or approved. I told the director to drop my name from the credits.

How are you coping with success as an author?

My wife, Renee, and I have middle-class backgrounds, and we've struggled with the overnight financial rewards of being a best-selling author. We give a lot of money to churches, missions and charities. And going on work trips helps us remain aware of how much I have and how little some other people survive on each day.

John Grisham, author of ten novels, is a member of his local Baptist church and coaches his son Ty's Little League baseball team.

Credits: Adapted from—Saturday: Robyn Weaver, Sharing the Victory (6-7/99)

1999 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity. For reprint information call 630-260-6200 or e-mail mail@menofintegrity.net.
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