David Levithan

My main piece of advice would be don't worry about being published - just write a really good book, but also don't be afraid to write a bad book. Give yourself permission to fail, and don't be afraid.

There's no such thing as a perfect person, so it makes no sense to write a perfect person. I don't know any author who'd try. And we write characters, not representations of groups.

Readers embrace all kinds of characters as long as they are written with emotional truth.

When I do my makeup, it kind of helps me get into the character that I'm trying to portray.

Although I write to entertain, and try to keep my work free of didacticism, I do have a rather passionate belief in our need to be connected to - and to learn from - history.

But with each passing year and each new study, the evidence for the genetic contribution to individual and group differences becomes more firmly established than ever.