I looked at her, and she was smiling like she was broken.

I write for teens partially to work out whatever it was that I needed to from my own teenage years.

We are the nation of dreams. We are seers. We are wizards. We speak in visions. Our letters are like flocks of doves, released from under our hats. We have only to stretch out our hand and desire, and what we wish for settles like a kerchief in our palm. We are a race of sorcerers, enchanters. We are Atlantis. We are the wizard-isle of Mu.

You need the noise of your friends in space.

I don't know when they first had feeds. Like maybe, fifty or a hundred years ago. Before that, they had to use their hands and their eyes. Computers were all outside the body. They carried them around outside of them, in their hands, like if you carried your lungs in a briefcase and opened it to breathe.

Why not write a book which is as sophisticated as a book for an adult, but is about the concerns that teenagers actually have?

I feel like it's hard to get into historical novels where you know what the story is far too well.