Angie Thomas Quotes

In general, I write for ages 12 and up - although I've received emails from readers between the ages of seven and seventy. My books are science fiction.

I don't think too much about the audience when I'm writing... I'm aware that 'Holes' was read by kids as young as 8, up to adults.

Sometimes I worry I'm writing 'Fifty Shades of Grey' for teenagers, but I'm not.

So much of young adult literature has turned dark, almost pathological. It's almost as if there is a race to see who can be the most dysfunctional.

The first book that they gave me was Jeannie, a young teenager. I went on with her maybe ten books.

Many of Judy Blume's books - which I devoured when I was growing up and where I found characters that were believable because they were a lot like me - caused considerable consternation when they were first published, but now they're widely accepted as an essential part of the children's literary canon.

I give people 'If You Came Softly' when they demand proof that novels for teens can be as good as the best novels for adults.

Richelle Mead's 'Vampire Academy' saga is set to be the next young adult paranormal series to become a household name.

The Hunger Games' is for eighth-grade girls! Winners read 'The Art of War!'

I must be honest here; I don't think there's such a thing as 'unconventional' when it comes to YA. YA readers are the most open-minded in the literary world. They'll read anything.

Bent Literary Agency had a Q&A on Twitter, and I took a chance and asked if the Black Lives Matter movement was an appropriate topic for a YA novel. Brooks Sherman, who is now my agent, responded that he didn't think any topics were inappropriate for YA. I remember being so terrified even just sending the tweet.

When I was in the YA age range myself, I didn't feel like there were a lot of books for me.

Children's fiction is the most important fiction of all.

'Harry Potter' really harnessed the imagination of so many young-adult minds, and it's the same with the 'Divergent' series.

Y.A. wasn't really a specific genre when I was fifteen, but if it was, I would probably have shunned it; I was a huge snob.

'Harry Potter' made it cool to read children's fiction, and 'Twilight' did the same for a slightly older age group. What I'm seeing is mothers and daughters who love to read the same books.

I've always been drawn to writing for young readers. The books that I read growing up remain in my mind very strongly.

I have no formal training as a writer at all, not even a single English class in college. However, my adult books are all science fiction, which has some similarities to YA.

It seems like whenever a big newspaper or TV show talks about teen literature, they focus on dark books or vampire books. It's kind of this cliche. It seems like the only time adults pay attention is with that angle.

The adolescent must never be treated as a child, for that is a stage of life that he has surpassed. It is better to treat an adolescent as if he had greater value than he actually shows than as if he had less and let him feel that his merits and self-respect are disregarded.

I can't assume that my kid is going to make the best decision all the time.

My relationship with the 'Baby-Sitters Club' series bordered on addiction, and my mom got me heavily into the Trixie Belden mysteries as well. Trixie Belden was like Nancy Drew, but without the boyfriends and cute outfits, which I think is the reason my mother preferred her.

Between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four, I must have read a whole library.

All I can say is, I don't encourage younger kids to read my books, and actually, the biggest age group on my Facebook page is 25- to 35-year-old women.

I have read the 'Divergent' series. I obviously read 'Harry Potter.'