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.
dog firsts needs
The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything. "Need a poo, Todd." "Shutup, Manchee." "Poo. Poo, Todd." "I said shut it.
life hate needs
Do we hate paradise so much we need to make sure it becomes a trash heap?
lying people needs
Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.
dad grandma needs
You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard.
one-day needs looks
And if one day,' she said, really crying now, 'you look back and you feel bad for being so angry, if you feel bad for being so angry at me that you couldn't even speak to me, then you have to know, Conor, you have to that is was okay. It was okay. That I knew. I know, okay? I know everything you need to tell me without you having to say it out loud.
allow anyone hugely inspiring
Limitations can be hugely creative and hugely inspiring - so long as they are the ones you choose for yourself. I will not allow anyone to take anything off my palette, but if I do, then within that, I can be creative.
either expectation sit sneak
If I sit down to write a young-adult novel, then I'm going to write either to the punch-pulling expectation of what I can't do, or I'm going to go the other way and think about what can I sneak in to be 'down with the kids' - which would be excruciating.
best helps hold onto stick
I'm a long distance runner, and I get my best ideas when I'm out running. It also helps that I can't write it down immediately - if you hold onto an idea, other things will stick on it.
avoid bring course describing people stuff
I try to avoid describing one interpretation of my books. Of course I have an opinion. I have things I want to say, but I don't ever want to limit anybody, to have them say, 'Oh, he said this, so that's what it's about.' I'm happy people bring their own stuff to it.
anywhere behind forcing information mobile phone somebody talking
I live in England, so I take a lot of trains, and you can't really go anywhere without somebody talking on their mobile phone behind you, forcing you to listen to their conversation. With the Internet, with texting, with networking sites, there's already information everywhere.
ali burning david foster peter smith writers
I like writers who seem to write because they have to. You get the feeling of this burning desire to tell a story. I find it in Peter Carey, Nicola Barker, Ali Smith and David Foster Wallace.
bit books boy boys equally funny girls thick tired wrong
I got tired of books where the boy is a bit thick and the girl's very clever. Why does it have to such an opposition? Why can't they be like the girls and boys that I know personally, who are equally funny and equally cross? Who get things equally wrong and are equally brave? And make the same mistakes?
attention exactly nobody pay purposely push
I don't purposely push the boundaries... I think if you pay attention to a story, it will have exactly as much 'difficult material' as it needs, and nobody will complain about it because you've earnt it.