Quotes from Alexandra Adornetto

I'd love to study in the U.S. I visited Vanderbilt in Nashville, and I've been told to check out Ole Miss. There are so many schools that I don't really know where to start. But I do love the U.S. and have met so many supportive and enthusiastic people here while I've been on tour. I could definitely live here!

At one school I visited, everyone had read 'Halo,' and they were all dressed up as angels - with halos!

I'd read a lot of books where the girls are in awe of the supernatural male, so I thought it was time to write about an awesome and super-powerful female who is also quite vulnerable and naive about life on earth.

Teenagers have a natural curiosity and are keen to clock up experiences. What they need to be wary of is that some experiences may erode their sense of self and lead to a fragmentation of morals.

My first book was signed up when I was 13, and I've been writing ever since. But penning the 'Halo' series has been so much more rewarding than I ever expected. For three years, from the age of 16 to 19, I poured my life, my experiences, and a love for the supernatural that dates back to childhood into these books.

When I first told people I was writing a book, some would say that was interesting, but others thought it was some holiday project and I would lose interest. I think my parents thought the same thing, and they were surprised when I kept going. I'm not sure I thought I would keep going, but then it became a big part of my life.

Because the path of the righteous man was never supposed to be easy,' I whispered. 'Those who are chosen by the Lord are given a hard journey. The rewards will come later.

Oh, man," Xavier groaned. "See what you've done-now I'm stressed." "You can't! You're the stable one!

That was one of the saddest things about people--their most important thoughts and feelings often went unspoken and barely understood.

I thought you were gone forever, I thought you'd walked away from everything, because I failed, because I destroyed the only thing that ever mattered to me. I waited for you to come, but you didn't.

I have never had other kids in the house... I had a huge collection of marbles, and they all had names, which I think concerned my parents. I used to go and sweep outside and talk to myself, and my mum's friends would be over and say, 'Do you realise she is talking to herself?'

Life is challenging enough without politicians to confuse us.

Always, as a child, I would go around the house, and if I found a word that I didn't know the meaning of, I would write it down and ask my parents to define it and try to memorise it.

Writing was something I have always been interested in. I've grown up in a household full of books, with both my parents English teachers and very booky.

Here is just the beginning of a list of skills that exam results cannot possibly hope to reflect: interpersonal skills, the ability to entertain, how articulate we are as speakers, our ability to work as part of a team, the ability to deal with challenges and invention.

There was that half-smirk again, playing around his lips, as if he was deciding whether the situation was amusing enough to warrant a full smile.

While my seemingly compulsive school-hopping has raised some eyebrows among my peers and caused my parents understandable consternation, I do not regret it.

As young Australians, the value of teamwork has been instilled in us throughout our schooling.

Apart from a small minority, teenage boys fall into three distinct categories: macho, metro, or just plain muddled.

We teenage girls are faced with a quandary: we know what we want but are forced to wait for our male counterparts to grow up. We are ready for intense and meaningful relationships, but research indicates that males will not reach maturity until their mid-20s.

Because characters are your creations, you are the one who ultimately gets to decide their fate.

Childhood is just this amazing place, and in my books, I was trying to express my concern about childhood being eroded. You have kids' TV programs being interrupted by terrorist attacks, and kids are exposed to so much these days.

...nothing is permanent. Everything and everyone you know can change at any moment. That's how I see things now - except for you. You're the one constant in my life.

The South is full of memories and ghosts of the past. For me, it is the most inspiring place to write, from William Faulkner's haunted antebellum home to the banks of the Mississippi to the wind that whispers through the cotton fields.