Victoria Aveyard

“What I would do, to myself or anyone else, for the chance to go back home? But no one is there. No one I care about. They're gone, protected, far away. Home is no longer the place we're from. Home is safe with them. I hope.”

“Remember when we told each other no distractions?Yes. He runs a blazing finger over my earrings, touching each one in turn.Distract me.”

“My biggest bits of advice are, write as much as you can, finish what you start, get a thick skin, don't take crap from anyone, but also live your life and have fun. The stereotype of a writer holed up alone all day is really unhelpful. You can't write real people and real emotion if you don't let yourself experience them.”

“Why give him a choice at all? You said yourself, we need everyone we can get. If this Nix guy is half of what you are, we can’t afford to let him go.”The answer is so simple, and it cuts me to bone.“Because no one ever gave me a choice.”

“I'm a visual writer, so it's fitting that my first brush with 'Red Queen' was an image. I had the idea of a teenage girl in an arena, a bit like 'Gladiator,' and she's about to be executed. But instead of being killed, she kills her executioner with lightning.”