If you were to look at each atom as a universe unto itself, think of the number of universes within each of us.

Certainly working with teens keeps me up to date with language and with certain kinds of thinking. I often feel like I have to go back to that 17-year-old Chris Crutcher, and that forms the core voice. I can draw on teens from 1964 to 2001 to find a part of the voice I need.

Adopted. Big Deal; so was Superman

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.

I'd rather be a flash than a slowly burning ember.

You have to be mad in the language you're mad in.

I can't think of a subject that is taboo for me, unless it's one I simply don't know anything about.