Publishers have realized that, unlike the previous time period, American teenagers are both smarter and require more topical material than they had been giving them before that. For one thing, they'll read thicker books. Besides, has anybody looked at the news or read the newspapers recently?

I don't write from dreams because I don't remember mine, but I had a fragment of an image left about twins, whose father was telling them how their lives were going to go for the next eight years. I wrote a scene about that, and then another and then another and then another, and after five months I had 732 pages.

We live in a dark time. Books are as dark as what is available to teenagers through the media every day.

A sudden thought shocked him to the bone. I could leave Carthak when I'm a master. I'd never have to think about the games again.

As long as there's life, there's hope.