And I realize that the decision to be human is not one single instant, but is a thousand choices made very day. It is choices we make every second and requires constant vigilance. We have to fight to remain human.

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

A lot of the drive to make narratives came from having to play by myself as a 5- or 6-year-old in the woods.

You need the noise of your friends in space.

My idea of life, it's what happens when they're rolling the credits.

There is a power in names. Olakunde told us of ashe-the power which runs through all things, subtle and flexible, which find its most potent expression in human utterance; so that it is a terrible thing to call down imprecations on an enemy, or to wish for anything but good, for what is said out loud is forged into truth.

It's insulting to believe that teens should have a different kind of book than an adult should.