Quote

I'd always read omnivorously and often thought much literary fiction is read by young men and women in their 20s as substitutes for experience.

I think so much of young adult literature sort of gets ghettoized - the title 'young adult' makes people immediately discount it. And just like with books that get written for adults, there is plenty of young adult literature that is bad. But there is also plenty of young adult literature that is brilliant.

I don't read a great deal of fiction, to my shame, other than the classics.

Literary fiction, as a strict genre, is all but dead. Meanwhile, most genres flourish.

Far more women read fiction than men, and because of this, novels have become marginalised as serious texts.

I don't generally read a lot of fiction.

I've never read a young adult novel, though. I'm sure I would love it, but I've never read one.

I'm looking forward to writing more novels for young adults.

I don't think I'm a natural novelist. Plot is definitely one of my weaker points. I've been working on it a long time, and it's not getting much better.