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" If we're going to ask our kids at age 18 to go off to war and die for their country, I don't see any problem with asking them at age 16 to think about what that might mean. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Country
War
Think
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" I think kids are excited by language, and they're not always given credit for that. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Think
Always
Credit
" I feel like it's important every once in a while to estrange ourselves from the familiar to remind ourselves of the potentialities of people, how many different ways there are of being. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Different
Feel
People
" I write for teens partially to work out whatever it was that I needed to from my own teenage years. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Out
Work
My Own
" I've always enjoyed that kind of thing - thinking about the production of narrative and why it is that when we read a novel, we don't notice the fact that someone who might be very close-mouthed or tight-lipped is perfectly willing to tell us a story in 600 or 700 pages. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Someone
Always
Kind
" Older teens tend to write to me and say, 'Thank you for not writing down to teenagers.' And then there are the letters from adults who say, 'This is such a good book; why did you write it for teens?' "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Good
Me
Thank You
" I don't want to go out hunting for dismal topics to write about. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Go
Want
Out
" I was someone who really loved fantasy novels and science fiction novels. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Who
Loved
Fantasy
" I feel like it's hard to get into historical novels where you know what the story is far too well. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Feel
Story
You
" Teens are not like the weird, dumb dwarves you have around your house. They are actually you when you were younger. Why not write a book which is as sophisticated as a book for an adult, but is about the concerns that teenagers actually have? "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Book
Dumb
House
" I eat broccoli. I think about the plot. I pace in circles for hours, counter-clockwise, listening to music. I try to think of one detail in the scene I'm about to write that I'm really excited about writing. Until I can come up with that one detail, I pace. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Writing
Detail
Listening
" Certain elements of teen life that, 10 years ago, were very important to me still, are becoming less so as I get older. I mean, I've kinda gotten over, I guess I'm saying, the fact that I had trouble getting a date for the prom. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Mean
Life
Important
" I can't tell you how irritating it is to be an atheist in a haunted house. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Tell
Haunted
Atheist
" All of my books, which are supposedly, I mean they're called YA novels, my hope is that adults would find no reason not to read them if they read them. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Reason
Find
Hope
" It's insulting to believe that teens should have a different kind of book than an adult should. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Believe
Adult
Kind
" A lot of the drive to make narratives came from having to play by myself as a 5- or 6-year-old in the woods. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Lot
Woods
Drive
" Occasionally people ask me how it is I write different types of things, and my answer to that is it's very natural. You get bored writing one kind of thing all the time. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
You
Me
Kind
" It's a very 18th-century thing to have a book broken into several volumes. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Very
Broken
Book
" We love fantasy novels in which the characters think that they're peasants but turn out to be princes and kings. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Turn
Think
Out
" Why not write a book which is as sophisticated as a book for an adult, but is about the concerns that teenagers actually have? "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Teenagers
Write
Why Not
" I completely love music. I used to be the music critic at 'The Improper Bostonian.' It's just something I've always loved very deeply. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Always
Critic
Love
" Sometimes reading other writers helps. You learn some little technique that turns out to be useful, or simply are reinspired by the amazing things others do. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Reading
You
Amazing
" One of the series I like is D.M. Cornish's 'Monster Blood Tattoo,' in which he creates a whole language. Kids who are reading that are building a language in their heads. There's no real cognitive difference. I think kids are excited by language, and they're not always given credit for that. "
Matthew Tobin Anderson
Language
Building
Think