When the book “Silver Linings Playbook” was turned into a major motion picture starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, and Robert DeNiro, author Matthew Quick, ’95, saw his dream and hard work come full circle. “If people keep telling you that your dream is not possible,” he said, “don’t believe them.”
Quick said he realized his desire to become a writer during his time at La Salle, where he double-majored in English and secondary education. Luckily, he never listened to all of the people who warned him that he would be unsuccessful as an English major. Instead, Quick and his wife, Alicia, whom he met at La Salle, left their teaching jobs in New Jersey and went to live with her parents in Massachusetts. For three years, Quick wrote in the basement of his in-laws’ house. The result was his first novel, which was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
In 2012, Quick saw his best-selling book hit the big screen and credits La Salle with getting him there. “Things worked out for me largely because of what I did while I was at La Salle, writing every day,” he said. “I walked the red carpet at the Oscars, and Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar for a character I wrote, and I did that with a La Salle English degree… I am so proud to be a part of this La Salle community, and I’ll never stop exploring.”
Quick has also written three young adult novels, “Forgive Me Leonard Peacock,” “Boy 21,” and “Sorta Like a Rock Star.” “The Good Luck of Right Now,” was published in 2014, followed by “Love May Fail” in 2015.