Sarah Dessen
When I was a teen, I was never really into the captain of the football team or the student body president. The guys I liked were quirky and different: They listened to music I'd never heard of, never had lunch or gas money, and could always make you laugh.Collection: Teen
I love writing about the summer between high school and college. It's the last gasp of really being a teen.Collection: Teen
I've changed in my sympathies since I've become a mother myself. In high school I went through a period where I was close with my mom and had to break with her in order to find myself and come back. Since that was my experience, that's often what happens in my books.Collection: Sympathy
I can't sit and twiddle my thumbs. I have to start writing even if it's miserable some days.
I write thank-you notes the minute I throw the wrapping paper away.
In high school, I was lucky enough to have a big group of girlfriends that have really inspired a lot of the stories in my books. I'm still close with my friends from that time, so it's never very hard to put myself back into that place, that voice.
My books are so tame!
I'm really happy to have the chance to talk about the editing process. It's something that I think doesn't get the weight it deserves, especially with the rise of self-publishing.
Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the book as tight as I can, but you reach a point as the author where you have lost all perspective.
You're not supposed to have it all figured out in high school. If you knew it all, and it was the best, it's all downhill from there.
I don't live in New York or California. I'm in the grocery store, at the park with my kids, and I'm a normal person. I'm feeding my chickens and agonizing about my next book!
I always wished I could move around and switch schools. It was hard to have these radical transformations. You'd think, 'I will be a totally different person tomorrow,' but it never worked.
I was born in 1970 in Illinois, but all the life I remember I've spent in Chapel Hill, N.C.
I was always a big reader, mostly because my parents were.
I've been writing, in one way or another, for as long as I can remember.
I was so thrilled that I was having a girl, because I just am so girly myself, but I think the teenage years are going to be very interesting.
I think my mother characters have changed a lot since Sasha was born, just because I understand what a hard job it is now, and I'm coming at it from another angle - like you just love and care about this person so much, and just want to protect them from everything.
I'm all about shrimpburgers, reading, and going to the beach.
I'm famously secretive about my work. Nobody reads my books till they're finished.
On the whole, I think I spent a lot of high school just trying to stay under the radar: I don't think I was all that memorable.
I love YA, and it's been a really good fit for me. But at some point, I would like to try something else: a collection of short stories, or writing about something other than high school. A lot has happened to me since I was eighteen.
If I had to pick, I'd say my favorite book is 'A Prayer For Owen Meany', by John Irving.
I really just love to read, period, whether it be books or magazines or the back of the cereal box. It's the one thing I can always count on to calm me down, take me away and inspire me, all at once.
I'm always hopeful. I feel like I'm at the prom sitting against the wall waiting for someone to ask me to dance.
I think part of the problem sometimes is that there's so much happening in my books, to whittle it down into a single script is hard.
I've never envied the person who had to put my books together in one script.
Each time, I think I'm never going to write another book. It never gets easier.
Teenagers are a great audience and they are fearless about asking what they want to know.
I just started to put texting and phones in my books. I want my books to be read 20 years from now; I don't want them to be dated.
There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.Collection: Love
Life's too short to worry about the little things. Enjoy what you have today, not what you might get tomorrowCollection: Worry
You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.Collection: Inspirational
Sometimes a question can hurt more than an answer.Collection: Hurt
Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.Collection: Friendship
The choices you make now, the people you surround yourself with, they all have the potential to affect your life, even who you are, forever.Collection: Life
The truth about forever is that it is happening right now.Collection: Forever
Your past is always your past. Even if you forget it, it remembers you.Collection: Past
Nothing happens for ages, and then all the changes come at once.Collection: Age
It's funny how someone's perception of you can be formed without you even knowing it.Collection: Knowing
What you have to decide... is how you want your life to be. If your forever was ending tomorrow, would this be how you'd want to have spent it? Listen, the truth is, nothing is guaranteed. You know that more than anybody. So dont be afraid. Be alive.Collection: Enjoy Life
Let's just start and see what happens.Collection: Happens
Your actions is like a raindrop; it falls into the pond making ripples and then its over.Collection: Fall
You get what you give, but also what you're willing to take.Collection: Giving
Fall in love with someone who truly deserves your heart. Not with someone who plays with it.Collection: Life
No matter how much time has passed, these things still affect us and the world we live in. If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together.Collection: Past
Everything, in the end, comes down to timing. One second, one minute, one hour could make all the difference.Collection: Differences
Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that's what makes you strong.Collection: Inspirational
Sometimes, we just have to be happy with what people can offer us. Even if it's not what we want, at least it's something.Collection: People
You can't always get the perfect moment. Sometimes, you just have to do the best you can under the circumstances.Collection: Perfect
Don't think or judge, just listen.Collection: Inspirational