I had them all fooled into believing I was normal and well-adjusted, a rock of sensibility who could always be counted on to have a positive attitude.

In a way, “failure” is just another word for “the journey,” for not being there yet but on the way. It’s the road we walk on to get wherever it is we’re trying to go.

I didn't 'decide' to write YA, per se. But every time I thought of a story, it featured characters 15, 16, 17.

Sometimes you want to hear your own mother's voice.

I grew up in San Francisco in the 1970s. We were part of a church that belonged to the California Jesus movement.

My whole life has been one big broken promise.

Other memories stick, no matter how much you wish they wouldn’t. They’re like a song you hate but can’t ever get completely out of your head, and this song becomes the background noise of your entire life, snippets of lyrics and lines of music floating up and then receding, a crazy kind of tide that never stops.