Being an adult comes with a whole new set of issues.

Dark books do appeal to kids because they have nice, sheltered lives - and they also appeal to children who are going through pretty hard times themselves.

I always thought of vampires, especially the young-adult ones, as a metaphor for sex - sucking blood, forbidden, taboo. I think they just ooze sex. Vampires are all the big themes in life in one attractive, bloodsucking package.

We all want to live forever, but we don't want to suck blood to do it, right? I think people like to have these deep moral questions that don't come up in real life.

I don't write that much horror. People tell me my books are scary, but they're not really; I don't go there.

I haven't paid for anything since I became famous.

Once you start telling people you're famous, they believe you.

Just because I worked in fashion doesn't mean I didn't go to see 'Underworld' three times!

I was always a sci-fi and fantasy geek. I was in the 'Lord of the Rings' club and all my cool friends made fun of me.

I used to write my books at night when I was a freelancer with no children. I used to really work in huge spurts - I could turn around a revision in two weeks, I used to be able to write 10,000 words a day. It's like, 'Wow, what happened to that?' That's just gone.