...I knew he would be dead, because Dally Winston wanted to be dead and he always got what he wanted.

I have no idea why I write. The old standards are: I like to express my feelings, stretch my imagination, earn money.

That's why people don't ever think to blame the Socs and are always ready to jump on us. We look hoody and they look decent. It could be just the other way around - half of the hoods I know are pretty decent guys underneath all that grease, and from what I've heard, a lot of Socs are just cold-blooded mean - but people usually go by looks.

Rat race is the perfect name for it,' she said. 'We're always going and going and going, and never asking where. Did you ever hear of having more than you wanted? So that you couldn't want anything else and then started looking for something else to want? It seems like we're always searching for something to satisfy is, and never finding it. Maybe if we could lose our cool we would.

I never base a character on someone I know. You can get ideas from real life, but every character you write is some aspect of yourself.

Maybe the two different worlds we lived in weren't so different. We saw the same sunset.

It ain't fair that we have all the rough breaks!