Sci-Fi is the genre that explored both possibilities: the end of our existential crisis and the end of our existence. My novel, 'The 5th Wave,' explores the latter scenario, because, frankly, I believe it represents the likeliest outcome of an extraterrestrial encounter. In short, if they're out there, we better hope they never find us.

I have a very low tolerance for boredom and often think I would have missed out on books entirely if I'd grown up in the Internet and video game age. Now I enjoy books for people of all ages, including children.

My first favourite book was 'Are You My Mother?' A picture book about a lost bird. After that my favourites changed almost yearly. I loved everything by Roald Dahl, but my favourite was probably 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' A librarian gave me a first edition of that book, which I treasure.

I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but I felt that, when it came to God, there was a broken promise in there somewhere.

So I do the thing most reasonable people would in my situation. I run.

Our voices, wrapping around each other’s, entwining, and then tugging free, in the pitch black.

There is beauty that soothes like the warm kiss of the spring sun upon the cheek, and then there is beauty that terrifies, like the cry of Ozymandias, inviting despair.

We’re all dead... Some of us are just a little further along than others.

I will trade my self-pity for hate. My guilt for cunning. My grief for the spirit of vengeance.

It isn’t fear that will defeat them. Not fear or faith or hope or even love, but rage.