“I thought: We are not close enough. I thought: He will not hear it. I thought: He will hear it and be out so fast that we will have no chance. I thought: Twenty seconds. I was breathing hard ans fast.”

American novelist and essayist of the 2000s and 2010s, best known for his YA fiction blending humor and existential themes. His work often explores adolescence, mortality, and the search for meaning, with novels like *The Fault in Our Stars* and *Paper Towns* achieving widespread acclaim.