Patrick Ness
Patrick Ness
Patrick Nessis an American author, journalist and lecturer who moved to London at age of 28 and now holds dual citizenship. He is best known for his books for young adults, including the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionYoung Adult Author
Date of Birth17 October 1971
CountryUnited States of America
age genre needs snob
It's really important to me not to be a snob about age division or about genre or whatever. The story needs to be what the story needs to be.
air job paid stuff
It's fun being paid to read stuff and air your opinion about it - pretty much a dream job for a writer.
badly fiction narrative popular
I think the reason teenage fiction is so popular with adults is that adults hunger for narrative just as badly as teenagers do.
available few meet readers shock time
I meet blind and partially-sighted young readers all the time, and it's a shock that so few books are available to them.
I like writing for teenagers because they're not snobs.
call reader
How you leave the reader is so important - not the climax; I call it the 'exit feeling'.
finding lasted life tales truths
Folk tales and myths, they've lasted for a reason. We tell them over and over because we keep finding truths in them, and we keep finding life in them.
magical novel purely slightly somehow
The magical and fantastical isn't something I'm uncomfortable with in books, and I chafe slightly at the idea that a purely realist novel somehow has more value.
best books characters definitely difficult fall love
The best characters in books are always the difficult ones, and why would you want to fall in love with someone difficult? The ones I'd fall in love with are the ones I'd definitely keep out of a book.
happiness mine prefer shares
Happiness is precious, and so I prefer to keep mine private. In a world where everyone shares everything, I can think of a lot of happy moments, but they're mine.
No one wants to read an apologetic book.
books boy bunch comedies experience funny guys tired woman
I get tired of comedies where there are a bunch of funny guys and a beautiful woman who doesn't do anything funny. And I don't like books where there's a rough-and-tumble boy and a really clever, snotty girl. That's just not my experience with teenagers.
boy complex drape framework great love plot stuff tend ya
Plot is a framework on which to drape other things. So once that's working, I can just let it go and do all the stuff that I love - 'Trojan horse' it. There are so many great YA heroines, and that's fantastic, but what about the emotionally complex boy out there? That's who I tend to write about.
connect online readers solitary
Online is such a brilliant, brilliant way to connect with young readers - even if they just want to tweet, 'Hey, I read your book!' - that, absolutely, I connect with that. But I also treat writing as solitary and keep it to myself as long as I can.