Each beat told him he was still alive, at least for one more second.

The impossible is more believable than the highly improbable.

The best morals kids get from any book is just the capacity to empathize with other people, to care about the characters and their feelings. So you don't have to write a preachy book to do that. You just have to make it a fun book with characters they care about, and they will become better people as a result.

You're responsible for yourself. You messed up your life, and it's up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you -- for any of you.

I didn't become a good writer until I learned how to rewrite. And I don't just mean fixing spelling and adding a comma. I rewrite each of my books five or six times, and each time I change huge portions of the story.

School just speeds things up... Without school it might take 70 years before you wake up and are able to count.

It's – I write the books and let the market find who reads it. I guess a young adult is anywhere from ten to fifteen.