I think that's what distinguishes YA from adult fiction - it's not just the age of the characters, but it's the sense of hope. Because I don't think I've ever read a YA book that feels completely hopeless at the end.
When you're young, you don't have a lot of control over even basic things in your life - where you live, what you eat, where you go during the day, how you get there. You don't have a lot of control, and that can feel sort of unstable in its own way because you don't get a say in those basic things.
Whenever I was trying to get over a boy, I would write him a really long, wrought letter - but never mail it.
College applications are such a huge part of senior year, yet often times you never see characters in books actually do work.
The books you read as a young person are books that stay with you forever. I think that is the biggest privilege of writing for young people. You feel like you can help shape somebody.
When I get an email from someone who says, 'Your book was the first book I ever read,' or, 'Your book is what made me love reading,' it's just such an honor.
My sister and I are really close. She's my little sister.
Sometimes you don't know what a book is about until you are finished with it and you're talking about it.
When you write something by hand, there's a sort of intimacy that is just intrinsic to that act. You don't get to delete something in the same way, where it's like it was never there.
You don't have to you change yourself for somebody else to like you.
