Bryan Konietzko Quotes

I'd never really considered doing young-adult novels, but one of the things that a friend pointed out to me is that I've actually had a teenage character in almost every adult novel that I've written.

I write edgy, sexy teen romances, and that's what I'll continue to do.

I didn't 'decide' to write YA, per se. But every time I thought of a story, it featured characters 15, 16, 17.

I think I draw most inspiration from writers like Richelle Mead and filmmakers like John Hughes. They both really understand the experience of being a teenager and how insistent and intense everything feels, but they're also smart, savvy, and fun.

Nobody understands anyone 18, including those who are 18.

I decided that, if I were to write a teen series, I'd want to set it in a place that was familiar to me - Manhattan, where I'd grown up - and I'd model the characters on myself and my friends.

When I wrote my first story, all the characters were teenagers because I think 16, 17 is a great age.

I've always enjoyed teen characters, and kids as well. For whatever reason, I seem to have an ability to do it sort of well, and I enjoy doing it.

I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters.

In terms of the frustration of my character, I suppose any teenager has probably gone through that, in terms of telling their parents, I want to do one thing, and their parent says no. I think parents sometimes forget that they were children.

I could have been on a path that led to different, more traditional teen romance, and 'Nip/Tuck' shook me loose from any generalization I might have been forced into. It helped me understand I wanted to take on things that were edgier, more challenging and riskier.

Writing a teen character is something I wanted to try again for a long time!

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

It works in the comic book, but as the audiences have gotten older and more sophisticated, I think the stories need to grow up with them. This is a story about a couple of rival gangs and what goes wrong in a couple of days.

I've always enjoyed the teen angst thing. I had a lot of teen angst as I was growing up, so I think I have a lot to say about it through characters before I have to move on.

In 'George Lopez', I played Veronica who's a bratty 18-year-old, and so I feel like it's much easier for me to play that because I feel like a late bloomer. It wasn't difficult or challenging at all because it's not like I haven't been a teenager.

Teen problem novels? I can go through them like a box of chocolates. And there are fantasy books out now that need a lot more editing. Fantasy got to be so popular that people began to think 'We don't need to be as diligent with the razor blade,' but they do.

Going back to my own past as a reader, I was a big, big reader of romances, particularly as a teenager, the age that my books are aimed at.

I kept getting offered all this young adult stuff. I don't want to keep telling teen coming-of-age stories!

I love telling teen stories where the characters are experiencing things for the first time - the stakes feel really high.

I'm excited to see a new age of rom-coms, and especially teen romantic comedies, because when I was younger, I was watching 'Harry Potter' and 'Hunger Games' and stuff like that. I loved those movies, but they are a little bit heavy. We didn't really get to have the lighthearted love stories.

I still have a YA-genre-series type of a book in me that I really want to tell.

For me, there's a deeper genre appreciation for what a coming of age story can be about. To apply that to a superhero world, for me, that was very exciting.

I started reading and fell in love with the worlds and characters Lev Grossman created. I'm taken with his exploration of an idealized childhood fantasy through the lens of adulthood, or coming into adulthood.

I started writing my first book for young people when I was in college. I was only a couple of years out of my teens when I began; I felt closer to that experience than I did as an adult. But I've always been drawn to stories about young people.