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!
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.
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.
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 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.
I was a total metal-head as a teen. I still love it, too.
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 know it sounds weird for a 12-year-old to say that he wants to start writing songs, but that's what happened.
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.
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.
