Q. Do you think this new-media sort of world is eventually going to replace printed novels entirely?

A. Yeah, probably. As much as I like physical books, it's hard for me to lament their loss. The current book business is madness: First, we print symbols onto processed trees, then we bind the processed trees together and produce a heavy item, which we then ship around the world. Then, if no one buys the heavy item, it gets shipped BACK to a warehouse, where it is either reshipped or destroyed.

In a world where text can be read on screens, this is all ludicrously inefficient and carbon-consumptive. We're all going to have to give up things we love to survive, and I suspect books will be among those things.

That said, I just got my royalty statement, and in the last six months, two (TWO!) people bought ebooks of Paper Towns. So we're not there yet.


Q. As a graduation present someone is making me a quilt and I wanted to put pieces of cloth onto the quilt that has the signatures of some of my favorite authors. I was wondering if you would be willing to sign a square in my quilt. I would appreciate it so much.

A. Unfortunately, one of my great deficiencies as an author and a person is my inability to do these things. I'm not good with the mail, and I'm not good with email, and I'm sorry about that. Strangely, I get a lot of requests along this line (although few are so charming and interesting as this particular one), and I would like to do them all, but I don't have an assistant, and it's just impossible to do it all on my own and still write and vlog and blog and do the other things that I have to do. (And want to do.) So, I'm really sorry!


Q. what do you think is the purpose of living and the human race?

A. Yeah, I don't know. I haven't found much that really holds up to scrutiny, but if you have any ideas, let me know.


Q. I don't get the knock knock joke Alaska made in Looking for Alaska. Did anyone ever admit that to you?

A. You are not alone, my friend. I can't even explain it, really. The joke is that if you tell someone else to start a knock-knock joke, they usually will start it immediately with great confidence, because we all know how to start a knock-knock joke, and then the other person says, "Who's there?" and then you realize that you've been set up, that you have absolutely no idea who's there. (And this is intended of course to be a way of saying that Pudge is sorta looking at Alaska, saying, "Who's there?" and not really knowing the answer, and also that Alaska is cognizant of this and is in some ways encouraging it.)


Q. I've tried explaining split infinitives to my friend, but he doesn't understand. Is there any way you could explain it that would make it easier?

A. Don't let anything come between "to" and your very. So you don't say, "It is fun to relentlessly split infinitives," you say, "It is fun to split infinitives relentlessly."


Q. Would you be more prone to developing a God complex or a fraud complex?

A. Well, I have a fraud complex. I assume everyone does. I think I am unlikely to develop a God complex, but I've been wrong before.


Q. If an adult character in a work of fiction were to supernaturally be brought to their own past as a child, would they be a pedophile for engaging in relationships with people of their (supernatural) biological age?

A. Yeah, I do think it's pedophilia. Like, how old you look does not affect how old you are. So, I mean, the reason it is inappropriate for me to have a relationship with an 18-year-old girl isn't because I don't look 18; it's because I've been on the planet a lot longer than 18 years and, as you will know when you are 31, this makes romantic relationships with 18-year-olds unappealing. (Which is to say that yes on some level I find the Edward thing disturbing; I think it is weird to conflate physical appearance and physical age.)


Q. So, John, what do you think of the Children's Book Festival in Hattiesburg? Inquiring minds want you to give us a shout-out.

A. The Children's Book Festival in Hattiesburg, MS was one of the best times I've ever had as an author. Brilliantly organized, great librarians, and the De Grummond Collection is an awesome resource for kids' book nerds like me.


Q. Did any of your books originally have different titles?

A. Alaska had many working titles (including Misremembering Alaska, which I still like, and The Great Perhaps, which became the Dutch title of the book). An Abundance of Katherines was never called anything else. Paper Towns also had a bunch of working titles, including More Light Than Heat and Under the Red, the White, and the Blue.


Q. Could you please link to that speech you said was your favorite speech ever?

A. It would be my pleasure.


Q. At the very beginning of Paper Towns, you say that "everyone gets a miracle." What was your miracle?

A. Sarah.