I've changed in my sympathies since I've become a mother myself. In high school I went through a period where I was close with my mom and had to break with her in order to find myself and come back. Since that was my experience, that's often what happens in my books.

In high school, I was lucky enough to have a big group of girlfriends that have really inspired a lot of the stories in my books. I'm still close with my friends from that time, so it's never very hard to put myself back into that place, that voice.

Maybe other writers have perfect first drafts, but I am not one of them. I always try to get the book as tight as I can, but you reach a point as the author where you have lost all perspective.

When I was a teen, I was never really into the captain of the football team or the student body president. The guys I liked were quirky and different: They listened to music I'd never heard of, never had lunch or gas money, and could always make you laugh.

Each time, I think I'm never going to write another book. It never gets easier.

I can't sit and twiddle my thumbs. I have to start writing even if it's miserable some days.

I just started to put texting and phones in my books. I want my books to be read 20 years from now; I don't want them to be dated.

I love writing about the summer between high school and college. It's the last gasp of really being a teen.

I think part of the problem sometimes is that there's so much happening in my books, to whittle it down into a single script is hard.

I was always a big reader, mostly because my parents were.

I was born in 1970 in Illinois, but all the life I remember I've spent in Chapel Hill, N.C.

I was so thrilled that I was having a girl, because I just am so girly myself, but I think the teenage years are going to be very interesting.

I write thank-you notes the minute I throw the wrapping paper away.

I'm all about shrimpburgers, reading, and going to the beach.

I'm always hopeful. I feel like I'm at the prom sitting against the wall waiting for someone to ask me to dance.

I'm famously secretive about my work. Nobody reads my books till they're finished.

I've been writing, in one way or another, for as long as I can remember.

I've never envied the person who had to put my books together in one script.

If I had to pick, I'd say my favorite book is 'A Prayer For Owen Meany', by John Irving.

My books are so tame!