Jay Asher Quotes

When somebody's face-to-face with you saying, 'I may not have been here had I not read your book,' how do you respond to that? The first several times I traveled, it was almost too much. I was totally grateful, but emotionally, it was really hard.

- Jay Asher

Every action we have is going to have repercussions in ways we could not anticipate.

- Jay Asher

I miss the newness of Magic Eye posters, which really are amazing.

- Jay Asher

Looking back, I do think one of the reasons 'Thirteen Reasons Why' has been so successful is not because it deals with serious issues but because I had a unique and interesting way to tell that story. I knew the issues were going to be dealt with in the book, but I felt my job was to write the story as entertainingly as possible.

- Jay Asher

I don't know anything about bullying in Huntington Beach specifically, but I would assume it's very similar to other places.

- Jay Asher

When you write a book for publication, you're writing it for other people to read.

- Jay Asher

With traditional school visits, I also get to speak with people who haven't read my books and talk about my writing process as well as the serious aspects I write about.

- Jay Asher

I thought I was going to be known for my humor. But then I had an idea for a story, which was absolutely not humorous. But, of course, that's the one that sells and becomes big.

- Jay Asher

Novels are a safe way to talk about things.

- Jay Asher

It seems like whenever a big newspaper or TV show talks about teen literature, they focus on dark books or vampire books. It's kind of this cliche. It seems like the only time adults pay attention is with that angle.

- Jay Asher

'Fifty Shades' opened the door and made it easier to write about any issue that's controversial. It has helped other authors talk honestly.

- Jay Asher

I really love visiting schools - in fact, that's my favorite part of being an author now - even though I still get stage fright! When I visit schools, I know I'm going to be talking to some kids who don't like to read.

- Jay Asher

When you're being bullied, it can feel like no one cares, and I'm so excited to tell the teens at the schools I visit that I wouldn't be there if their school didn't care.

- Jay Asher

My favorite aspect of being an author has always been visiting different communities and meeting my readers face to face.

- Jay Asher

One of the things I found is that no matter where in the country - poor communities, rich communities - everybody deals with very similar issues of bullying. It's pretty widespread.

- Jay Asher

There are things that aren't supposed to be comfortable to read, because those situations shouldn't be comfortable to discuss, but they still need to be discussed.

- Jay Asher

Fiction is an easy way to talk about issues: I think it feels less preachy. You can have the students discuss characters in the book as opposed to hypothetical situations, or as opposed to opening up about themselves, unless they really want to.

- Jay Asher

What you hear mostly people gripe about adaptations is, 'They took out this scene,' or, 'They had to condense these characters.' I understand why they have to do that. But if you had a favorite character, and now they've been melded together with another one, it's disappointing.

- Jay Asher

I was in Las Vegas, and there was a exhibit of King Tut's tomb, and it was an audio tour. At the very end of that, I just thought it would be a really cool structure for a novel, but I just didn't have a story to go along with it.

- Jay Asher

I knew that part of the problem with sensitive issues is that, because they're uncomfortable to address, we have a hard time doing so honestly, if at all.

- Jay Asher

The main character in the book is usually someone you're identifying with because the story is being told through this person's mind.

- Jay Asher

Bullying has been around forever, and so it became one of these issues that as an adult we look back on and say, 'Yeah, it's just one of those unfortunate parts of growing up.' You know you're not going to stop it, so it just became easier to call it one of those things that 'just happens.'

- Jay Asher

There's this stress that is relieved when you realize somebody understands, and that's only going to happen if you feel the person who's writing the book or the people in the TV show aren't holding back.

- Jay Asher

My friends and I did one of those 'Who's Hot and Who's Not' lists. Every school has those, and now they are online, which makes it even worse. It was one of those moments that I look back on a lot, and think that was horrible.

- Jay Asher

Of course I always like going to bookstores, but at stores, you're mostly meeting kids who are already into reading.

- Jay Asher

Teens in the '90s had the same basic desires as they do now.

- Jay Asher

When me and my author friends who write about other difficult subject matter... when you hear from teens daily saying, 'Your book helped me or made me understand a friend better, what somebody else is going through,' you see the positive things.

- Jay Asher

When I decided I wanted to become an author, I never thought something I wrote would be used as a way to start conversations that are otherwise difficult to begin.

- Jay Asher

See, I'm not a very good musician.

- Jay Asher

I miss video games where the jump-kick was the trickiest combo to master.

- Jay Asher

I had written a book that dealt with really serious issues. Was anybody going to want to read a Christmas love story from me?

- Jay Asher

If we know it's happening, and we're not having the discussion, we're contributing to the problem of making it seem like people can't open up.

- Jay Asher

The Golden Rule will always be good advice!

- Jay Asher

There's no way to know exactly what someone's dealing with, no matter how open you are. You're just never going to know everything.

- Jay Asher

It's important to make teens realize the influence they have over others.

- Jay Asher

Usually, when somebody really hates your book, they're not going to waste time on it, telling you what you need to work on.

- Jay Asher

As an author, I love to know my book sells really well.

- Jay Asher

As a writer, my only responsibility is to tell a compelling story.

- Jay Asher

Actually, I love trying to figure out why certain books become hits while others, which may be just as good, have trouble finding an audience.

- Jay Asher

I think there's always room for humor, especially when you're talking about really serious issues.

- Jay Asher