At his heart, Shakespeare was a YA author. So many of his plays are set with high school-aged characters. He understood the passion, the confusion and drama that marks that life stage.
I just couldn't take school seriously: I had this guitar neck with four frets which I kept hidden under the desk. It had strings on it so I would practice my chord shapes under the desk and that's about all I did at school.
I'm always full of ideas. I just haven't stopped doing what I did as a teenager. Now I just happen to get paid for it!
When we were 15, my brother and I were getting really into Nirvana, Green Day, and The Beastie Boys. We started going to shows and realized we really wanted to be on stage.
Playing in those bars where people really don't care about your music really gives you an appreciation for when you get to a concert, and people are singing your original music - it's been a great journey, but I definitely didn't have an interest in music as a kid until I was a teenager.
In my late teenage years, I developed a real passion for it, and wrote a lot of poetry.
In a way, I'm lucky that I was never classically trained and never went to a music college. I'm just from a normal working class family and happened to get obsessed with music as a teenager.
I was a total metal-head as a teen. I still love it, too.
I was 16 when I was in a band, for about 10 minutes. I went off and did acting after that. So it was a wee moment for me when I sang.
In high school I wanted to be a rock star and was in a lot of bands.
As a teenager, I was part of rap groups, but ultimately the sound of R&B acts like Donnell Jones, Brian McKnight, and Eric Benet won my heart.
I was crazy for music as a high school kid and a college kid.
I am drawn to writing and directing as it is most like the feeling I had when I was a teenager with my puppet theatre. You are more in control of everything and involved in every aspect of production, so more challenged and fulfilled.
I don't think you ever love anything as passionately as you do when you're a teen. You remember the books you read as a young person your whole life. I feel so lucky to write for young adults.
I know it sounds weird for a 12-year-old to say that he wants to start writing songs, but that's what happened.
As a teenager I was obsessed with music and with writing and performing songs.
I was obliged to play the piano, like middle-class children are. I didn't start to love it until I was 14.
I discovered flamenco when I was 14, before I even got involved with jazz music. I was so crazy about flamenco music. I wanted to be a flamenco guitar player.
