Universities can teach maturity. They can teach teenagers how to be adults, and that means to function outside a clique or a tribe. – Russell Smith
The YA category is an entirely new one, and seems to have more to do with readability than with age group or theme. The adult YA readers I know do actually consistently say that they are looking for an easy read, a fun read, an unchallenging read. – Russell Smith
The only thing that makes a book YA is that it is about teenagers, and it is written in a very conventional, non-artsy, non-pretentious way. YA is not the place for the oblique or the cryptic. If it is in any way experimental in form, it is not YA. – Russell Smith
Indeed, the whole point of the man bun, I have surmised, is to assert a high proficiency at yoga. There are no yoga-achievement badges, no coloured belts like judo, so the male yoga expert needs some other kind of visible symbol. – Russell Smith
Anything that encourages a boy to open a book, in a world of more violent and therefore more compelling video games, is something I’m going to pay for. – Russell Smith
I don’t see my artist friends as any more neurotic or addiction-prone than the others. The roommates I have had who were into triathlons or environmentalism were just as crazy as the poets, just as prone to tears over gardening or air conditioners, just as ready to kite a cheque or binge on cookie dough. – Russell Smith
From its beginning, fan fiction has been written mostly by women. Originally, this was because of a dearth of interesting female characters in conventional sci-fi. – Russell Smith
I am indeed completely nuts, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about how I look. Sometimes, I admit, I will privilege appearance over comfort. – Russell Smith
Fashion has always been in conflict with convention. Style involves some knowledge of both. But you can pretty much forget these seasonal injunctions. – Russell Smith
Verisimilitude is something I am constantly seeking in fiction. I am looking for surface detail that makes something seem real. – Russell Smith
Have you noticed the people most likely to be up in arms about governments apparently spying on us tend to be the most non-private people you know? The people launching petitions and wailing about Big Brother and data collection are most likely to be the most constant self-presenters. – Russell Smith
One of the qualities essential to writing exciting stories, whether for page or screen, is an ability to abandon one’s morality. We simply cannot be good writers and good people. One must be able to access one’s darkest self, one’s venality and pettiness and murderousness. – Russell Smith
Songs are great. I love songs. I sing them in the shower sometimes. They can be poignant or cheery or angry, and they can have catchy and satisfying melodies. There’s nothing wrong with songs. – Russell Smith
It’s great that I can look up a fact instantly on my cellphone, but I miss the days in my room with a dog-eared, text-heavy paperback, immersed in the statistics of crime and punishment and lunacy, completely alone with the narrative of human depravity. – Russell Smith
My father was a graduate student at Oxford in the early 1960s, where the conventions and etiquette of clothing were crucial to the pervasive class consciousness of the place and time. – Russell Smith
I’m in favour of hipster androgyny: Any trend that permits men to rebel against strict gender rules of appearance is going to make the world a more expressive and sensitive place for all of us. – Russell Smith
All coffee shops now have WiFi. Why bring a book when you could be wittily attacking some idiot columnist on Twitter, or responding to your date requests, or posting a picture of your foot? All of that is more gripping and immediate and social than books. – Russell Smith