You Have To Be Mad

...you Don't Always Get What You Expect. I Wish Someone, Sometime When I Was Growing Up, Would Have Told Me What Expectations Would Get Me. ... Our Parents, Schools, Everyone Tells Us Things Will Be A Certain Way When We're Adults And If They're Not That Way, We Should Make Them Be; Or At Least Pretend. But After A Certain Point That Just Doesn't Work.

I Have Made A Career Of Creating Characters Who Fight School Authority And Chomp At The Bit To Get Out Into The 'real' World And Live Their Lives, Mostly Because That's The Kind Of Teenager I Was.

I Think The Value In Books Like Mine, And A Great Number By Other Talented Writers, Is In The Ability To Bring Dark Subjects Into The Open Where They Are Not So Dark, Where They Can Be Talked About And Considered By Teens And Adults Alike.

You Put Yourself Out There In The Truest Way You Can And Hope Others Do The Same. You'll Connect Or You Won't, But You Did What You Could. It's Like Playing Ball In Some Way. There Are Guys On The Team, Like Cody, I'd Give My Life For. But You Have To Be Willing To Lay Down Your Life For All Of Them If You Want To Put The Best You On The Field. Every Guy On That Field Has To Believe You'll Bring Nothing Back Off The Field With You.

You Put Yourself Out There In The Truest Way You Can And Hope Others Do The Same. You'll Connect Or You Won't, But You Did What You Could.