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Getting to have an opportunity to tell a story that is about mental illness and how it affects one's self and one's community was really something that really meant a lot to me.

'Silver Linings' has proved a golden opportunity for me.

I grew up in the heart of the Depression.

There are so many cliches associated with mental health - such as the 'fine line between lunacy and genius' - which are, on the whole, a load of rubbish.

I had this sense that I was part of, sort of a lineage of artists and writers through history that have had mood disorders.

It's my belief that, since the end of the Second World War, psychology has moved too far away from its original roots, which were to make the lives of all people more fulfilling and productive, and too much toward the important, but not all-important, area of curing mental illness.

I've dealt with depression my entire life, on and off, which makes me the perfect author for teenage readers.

I have a fondness for writing about precocious, troubled teenagers, who are alienating, but kind of endearing. It's from remembering so clearly that time in my own life. I experienced myself as more dramatically troubled than I was, but I just remember how it felt.

As a novelist, I have always been interested in how people come to terms with difficult, life-altering events.

I have fought my own battle with depression, and it was important for me to bring a little awareness about it for others.