I'm not a reader of young adult fiction for the simple reason that these novelists are writing for adolescents, so they are not writing for me.

People always ask me about the role models that I'm providing for kids, and I say I can't be concerned with that. I'm not worrying about corrupting youth. I'm worrying about writing realistically and truthfully to affect the reader.

I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.

Cities fell. Earth opened. Planets tilted. Stars plummeted. And the awful silence.

Affection is one of the most neglected words in the English language, that people throw the word love around like confetti when they mean affection.

A writer must take risks, defy the odds, be a bit obsessed and a little mad.

Do I dare disturb the universe? Yes, I do, I do. I think. Jerry suddenly understood the poster--the solitary man on the beach standing upright and alone and unafraid, poised at the moment of making himself heard and known in the world, the universe.