I think the reason teenage fiction is so popular with adults is that adults hunger for narrative just as badly as teenagers do.

A book cannot apologize for what people may think it should be. It has to be authoritative. That's what I want as a reader - I want to be confident that the book will do its job.

In some ways. I always feel between worlds, between cultures, and I think that's not necessarily a bad place for a writer to be. Writers are kind of on the fringe anyway, observing, writing things down. I'm still mostly American, but it's a nice tension.

I don't purposely push the boundaries... I think if you pay attention to a story, it will have exactly as much 'difficult material' as it needs, and nobody will complain about it because you've earnt it.

The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

I used to hold a unitary view, in which I proposed that only experienced happiness matters, and that life satisfaction is a fallible estimate of true happiness.

I truly believe happiness has a different meaning for everyone. But I also believe that the sense of self is the key to one's happiness.

My happiness is very fragile.