Deadline' is the story of a young man forced to discover who he is, and what's important in life, during the short span of his senior year in high school.

But the truth doesn't need to be known, or believed, to be true.

I don't think I'll ever lose the feeling that I had when I read 'To Kill a Mockingbird' - Harper Lee was going back into her childhood. I grew up in a real small town - Lee's was in the South, mine the Northwest - but small towns have a lot in common. There was such a revelation in knowing that a story could be told like that.

If you think your life sucks, it probably does. Do something about it.

And I think if you're going to be with somebody, you owe it to them to show yourself.

Censors can make a case for zero tolerance in language. They can make the argument that since we don't allow our children to use that language in schools, we also shouldn't give them stories in which it is used.

I am for anything that makes teens visible in an honest way... in other words, anything that represents them the way they are, positively or negatively.