Im a girl who has been tamping down her emotions and keeping them tightly guarded her whole life. And that works really well for me... And now I felt like my shell had a dangerous crack in it. Without much more effort on his part, it would split wide open and my enormous river of emotions would gush out - the bad and the good. It was pretty much the scariest thing I'd ever thought of." - Maximum Ride.

Career
After Patterson retired from advertising in 1996 he devoted his time to writing. Patterson has also set up the James Patterson Teacher Education Scholarship in the schools of education at Appalachian State Michigan State and Florida Atlantic University. Early life and education
Patterson was born in Newburgh New York on March 22 1947 and received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Manhattan College along with a Master of Arts in English from Vanderbilt University.

Patterson also wrote the Michael Bennett Women's Murder Club Maximum Ride Daniel X and Witch and Wizard series as well as many stand-alone thrillers nonfiction and romance novels. James B.