Q. Was the alternative title Under the Red, the White, and the Blue a reference to The Great Gatsby?

A. Yeah. UTRUTWUTB was a considered title for Gatsby, and I liked the idea of appropriating the title for my novel. (At the time, the three parts of the book that became Paper Towns were going to be called The Red, The White, and The Blue instead of The Strings, The Grass, and The Vessel.

Anyway, it was one of those ideas that is almost as clever as it is pretentious--which meant that it was quickly abandoned. Once I figured out that the different ways of imagining the phrase "paper towns" would be at the center of the book, obviously I settled on the title. And that was pretty early on.


Q. What are your opinions on abstinence?

A. Well, it depends on what kind of abstinence you mean. If you mean abstaining from heroin, then I think abstinence is an awesome idea. If you mean abstaining from breathing air, then I think that abstinence is dangerous and potentially even fatal.

If you mean abstaining from sexual intercourse until you are married, I think that's up to you. Sex is personal stuff, and I think you're smart enough to make good decisions. (Okay, I don't think that, actually. But I do think that you'll make exactly the same bad decisions regardless of what I tell you to do, which is precisely what all research on abstinence-only sex education has shown.)


Q. I'm going on a road trip next summer across the US. Where would you recommend going?

A. I always think it's a joy to see some of the world's largest balls. The world's largest ball of stamps is in Omaha, Nebraska. There are several competing world's largest balls of twine--the one in Darwin, Minnesota is particularly nice, and there's a coffee shop next door with an excellent breakfast menu. And if it still exists, check out Carhenge, an exact replica of Stonehenge built out of junked cars. It's in Nebraska somewhere.

Also, the Grand Canyon is nice if you like that kind of thing.


Q. Several years ago you vowed to always read first novels if you were asked. Does that offer still stand?

A. Oh, did I really vow that? (Which is to say that I really did vow it, and like so many other vows along the way, it has since been broken.) The problem is that it became literally impossible for me to read all the stuff I was being asked to read (I am a slow reader) and still write books and make videos and watch enough soccer to feel sane and etc. This is one of the major ways, actually, that I feel like a failure, but I'm trying to find more time in my day to read, so the answer is that the offer does not stand, but I will nonetheless find a way to do better than I'm doing now.


Q. Is Cassandra Clare's Part One title ("Sparks Fly Upward") a shout out to you in any way, or just coincidence?

A. I assume it is a shout-out to the Book of Job, as my domain name is. I know Cassandra, and we are friends, but I can take no responsibility for her awesome books or their awesome section titles.


Q. What do you think of Youtube becoming more corporate?

A. Well, I mean, they are owned by a corporation. They aren't in the business of being awesome; they're in the business of making money. We can find productive ways to move forward working both with and against the corporate model, but we can't expect corporations to stop acting like corporations.


Q. When you go in a bookstore, do you go check your books to see if any nerdfighter notes are in them?

A. Yes. And there often are. God I love nerdfighters.