I was coming off of The O.C. and had very little interest in doing another teen drama. And then I got sent theGossip Girl book series, and I was like, 'I might not be ready to leave high school after all.'

As The O.C. started up again, I started to feel myself potentially getting pulled away.

You do in your art what you cannot do in your life.

The fun thing about TV is you get the opportunity to discover things, and somebody who starts off in a smaller part can really emerge and surprise you.

It's my experience that the fluidity of sexuality with younger people is more accepted.

I want every character be an outsider in some way.

It's really hard in this day and age, with radio and MTV being so consolidated, to get new music out there. I think we've become a really legitimate, viable avenue for getting new music out there.