Ned Vizzini
A lot of the books that I grew up reading were pretty brutal, like the 'Redwall' books.
A novel wouldn't be a book if there weren't some flights of fancy on the part of the author, stopping time to examine things, or to tell a joke.
Adolescence is the most Technicolor time in our lives. It's the time when adulthood is new and we care most about it. It contains the highs and lows that excite me as a writer.
Putting lessons in young adult books is very dangerous.
You have tremendous freedom in the young adult book world to write what you want. You can put R-rated content in a book that you can't in a similarly targeted movie.
I always start a book thinking that it can be something other than first-person present, and I always come back to first-person present. It's just the easiest way.
People have always asked me why I'm drawn to material about kids, and for me, it's - I remember being at that age and feeling completely and utterly powerless. You know, there's so many things you wanna do and so many things you're told you can't do.
'Game of Thrones' cares about children. Children are heirs. There's no hemming and hawing about how they're desensitized to violence or they cost too much to send to college. They're a blessing - in many ways the only blessing - and even the evil ones have parents who love them.
Once you have a kid, it's amazing how quickly people ask, 'So are you going to stop at just one?'
I have an issue with dogs - I can't pick up after them. It's nothing personal; it just makes me feel like a servant.
I didn't want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that's really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you're so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.Collection: Life
That's all I can do. I'll keep at it and hope it gets better.Collection: Get Better
So why am I depressed? That's the million-dollar question, baby, the Tootsie Roll question; not even the owl knows the answer to that one. I don't know either. All I know is the chronology.Collection: Depression
I'm done with those; regrets are an excuse for people who have failed.Collection: Regret
Its so hard to talk when you want to kill yourself. That's above and beyond everything else, and it's not a mental complaint-it's a physical thing, like it's physically hard to open your mouth and make the words come out. They don't come out smooth and in conjunction with your brain the way normal people's words do; they come out in chunks as if from a crushed-ice dispenser; you stumble on them as they gather behind your lower lip. So you just keep quiet.Collection: Depression
I don't know how I can be so ambitious and so lazy at the same time.Collection: Lazy
Sometimes I just think depression's one way of coping with the world. Like, some people get drunk, some people do drugs, some people get depressed. Because there's so much stuff out there that you have to do something to deal with it.Collection: Thinking
Sometimes when you open a book, time stops.Collection: Book
I had fooled myself into thinking that I was something important to the rest of the world.Collection: Thinking
She doesn't want to end up like me. At least I'm giving someone an example not to follow.Collection: Giving
I wanted to tell people, "My depression is acting up today" as an excuse for not seeing them, but I never managed to pull it off.Collection: People
I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?Collection: Sad
Life's not about feeling better, it's about getting the job done.Collection: Jobs
Ski. Sled. Play basketball. Jog. Run. Run. Run. Run home. Run home and enjoy. Enjoy. Take these verbs and enjoy them. They're yours, Craig. You deserve them because you chose them. You could have left them all behind but you chose to stay here. So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live. Live. Live.Collection: Basketball
That made me happy. That was my Anchor.Collection: Anchors
I'm smart but not enough--just smart enough to have problems.Collection: Smart
And I could have died right then. And considering how things went, I really should have.Collection: Should Have
I feel dead, wasted, awful, broken and useless. It's not the kind of feeling you forget.Collection: Broken
Do you even know who the enemy is?" "I think... it's me".Collection: Thinking
My brain was all right back then; it didn't get stuck in ruts.Collection: Brain
That's the number one thing I hear about humans. You have all these choices, so you're confused all the time, and you think so much that you're never happy.Collection: Confused
One thing I've learnt recently: how to think nothing. Here's the trick: don't have any interest in the world around you, don't have any hope for the future, and be warm.Collection: Thinking
The absolute worst part of being depressed is the food. A person's relationship with food is one of their most important relationships. I don't think your relationship with your parents is that important. Some people never know their parents. I don't think your relationship with your friends are important. But your relationship with air-that's key. You can't break up with air. You're kind of stuck together. Only slightly less crucial is water. And then food. You can't be dropping food to hang with someone else. You need to strike up an agreement with it.Collection: Depression
People are screwed up in this world. I'd rather be with someone screwed up and open about it than somebody perfect and ready to explode.Collection: Life
How would you know? Everything’s like sex. It’s the universal metaphor. To pick a lock, let me guess, you have to go slow at first, but then you have to pull off some fancy moves, and you have to stay concentrated, and you have to stick something in something, right?Collection: Sex
We wear our problems diffrentlyCollection: Problem
They always said on TV you could do anything you wanted, but here I was trying to do something and it wasn't working. I would never be able to do it.Collection: Trying
And that was the closest I've ever come to an epiphany.Collection: Epiphany
I just want to not be me.Collection: Want
Things to do today: 1) Breathe in. 2) Breathe out.Collection: Today
Every tounge bit had another word to say.Collection: Bits
See, when you mess something up, you learn for the next time. It's when people compliment you that you're in trouble. That means they expect you to keep it up.Collection: Mean
The stuff adults tell you not to do is the easiest.Collection: Adults
I should be a success and I'm not and other people- younger people- are. Younger people than me are on TV and getting their lives in order. I'm still a nobody. When am I going to not be a nobody?Collection: Order
I know a lot of famous people didn't do well at school, like James Brown; he dropped out in fifth grade to be an entertainer, I respect that... but that's not going to be me. I'm not going to be able to do anything but work as hard as possible all the time and compete with everyone I know all the time to make it.Collection: School
That's worst than gonerreha, man!Collection: Men
Time is a person-made concept.Collection: Made
You all right, man?' This should be my name. I could be like a super hero: You All Right Man. Ah...' I stumble. Don't bug Craig,' Ronny is like. 'He's in the Craig zone. He's Craig-ing out.Collection: Hero
What am I always going to do? I'm going to go home and freak out.I'm going to sit with my family and try not to talk about myself and what's wrong. Im going to try and eat. Then I'm going to try and sleep. I dread it. I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human, you know?Collection: Home
Yes, Doctor. I'll do what you say. I'll do what you all say.Collection: Doctors