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When somebody's face-to-face with you saying, 'I may not have been here had I not read your book,' how do you respond to that? The first several times I traveled, it was almost too much. I was totally grateful, but emotionally, it was really hard.
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See, I'm not a very good musician.
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When you're being bullied, it can feel like no one cares, and I'm so excited to tell the teens at the schools I visit that I wouldn't be there if their school didn't care.
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I miss the newness of Magic Eye posters, which really are amazing.
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I was in Las Vegas, and there was a exhibit of King Tut's tomb, and it was an audio tour. At the very end of that, I just thought it would be a really cool structure for a novel, but I just didn't have a story to go along with it.
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My favorite aspect of being an author has always been visiting different communities and meeting my readers face to face.
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Looking back, I do think one of the reasons 'Thirteen Reasons Why' has been so successful is not because it deals with serious issues but because I had a unique and interesting way to tell that story. I knew the issues were going to be dealt with in the book, but I felt my job was to write the story as entertainingly as possible.
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The main character in the book is usually someone you're identifying with because the story is being told through this person's mind.
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I had written a book that dealt with really serious issues. Was anybody going to want to read a Christmas love story from me?
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It's funny: when I go to a school and speak, and when they hear the back story about me, they want to go read the book.
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'Fifty Shades' opened the door and made it easier to write about any issue that's controversial. It has helped other authors talk honestly.
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Bullying has been around forever, and so it became one of these issues that as an adult we look back on and say, 'Yeah, it's just one of those unfortunate parts of growing up.' You know you're not going to stop it, so it just became easier to call it one of those things that 'just happens.'
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It's important to make teens realize the influence they have over others.
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As an author, I love to know my book sells really well.
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When I decided I wanted to become an author, I never thought something I wrote would be used as a way to start conversations that are otherwise difficult to begin.
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Teens in the '90s had the same basic desires as they do now.
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Of course I always like going to bookstores, but at stores, you're mostly meeting kids who are already into reading.
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There's this stress that is relieved when you realize somebody understands, and that's only going to happen if you feel the person who's writing the book or the people in the TV show aren't holding back.