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- Feed Preview TFiOS Questions Answered
You are aware how awful that thing with Augustus saying he ...ship with Anne Frank because she died of an illness is, right?
Augustus doesn't say that in the novel, or anything vaguely like it.
I was hoping you could explain your view on why Hazel is wr...explanation for this. If you can please do answer my question.
Well, it's not an opinion. It's a fact. The infinite set of numbers between 0 and 1 is the same size as the infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2. Wikipedia has a pretty good article on Hilbert...
Hi, John. Could you please explain what Hazel’s dad meant... thing in the book that I still don’t understand. Thank you!
Well, as Hank said in his song "The Universe is Weird," the weirdest thing about the universe is that it created an instrument (humans) with which to know itself. We are both products and observe...
I can only apologise for my boring typographical question -...y ignorance if this is a theme or indeed, previously answered)
Well, it goes back and forth some, but I do this a lot more in my other books, especially KATHERINES. English grammar never really learned to capture dialogue very well. (Like, from Louise Erdr...
Could you explain the Bone scultpture’s metaphor/symbolis...never really understood it. Thanks! I loved TFiOS. It was gr9.
To my mind, the great thing about Funky Bones (which is real ) is that it basically forces people to play and picnic upon the bones of the dead. We do this all the time: Whenever we play or da...
In Crime & Punishment, Dostoevsky describes a woman with co...on he does). Is there ANY way this is more than a coincidence?
It is more than a coincidence. People with tuberculosis were often said to have a "hectic glow," so presumably the translator used that English phrase because it was a relatively common descripti...
it seems like there’s a symbolic reason behind most thing...ou specifically choose to write TFiOS in this way, if so, why?
Well, I always want to write books that stand up to re-reading, but to be clear, there's more than one good way to read a book. The great thing about figurative language and symbols and the like ...
Hi! I was wondering what the significance is (if there is a...characters are constantly surrounded by death. Thanks so much!
Yeah, The Price of Dawn series is interminable. I think this is one of the things we like about book series, and also about "tentpole franchises" like Spiderman and James Bond: The story is inf...
dear john, i am sorry to bother you but i read till page 16...e and on top of that i cant write without a spelingg mistake )
Your English is much better than my Spanish, so fear not. I meant that I have felt in the past like I would never again write anything worth publishing. I do not feel that way now. (I will prob...
I didn’t initially get the whole DTM as God thing because...within AIA but that seemed too conceited, even for van Houten!
Well, I don't think these ideas are mutually exclusive. Van Houten imagines the Dutch Tulip Man as a metaphor for God, and the way Hazel and Gus talk about the Dutch Tulip Man reflects something ...
Hello, Mr. Green. Augustus is a beautiful name. But why Aug...ed Augustus Waters. But, why Augustus? Is there a story to it?
If this tumblr were any good, there'd be a sidebar with links to the answers of common questions, but there isn't, and I understand that it's a huge pain in the ass to scroll through hundreds of ...
Hey, I was wondering why you made Hazel a vegetarian. Was it just a random thing you added in or did it have a purpose?
Well, as she says, she wants to minimize the number of deaths for which she is responsible. (And more generally, Hazel's conception of a well-lived life is all about walking lightly upon the eart...
You think readers can think anything they want about writin...radicts your idea b/c it limits the reader. What do you think?
I don't think the area of meaning is defined by the author--at least not exclusively--but otherwise I agree. When i say books belong to their readers, I do not mean, "If you think Huck Finn i...
Did you think about Susan Sontag’s famous essay “Illnes... to Hazel’s idea that “cancer books suck”. Just curious!
Yeah, I reread "Illness as Metaphor" and also her brilliant Regarding the Suffering of Others while writing The Fault in Our Stars. In fact, there were a couple Sontag quotes as epigraphs in e...
I have a question about your books being translated into ot...anguage? Is that whole idea of marriage just going to be lost?
Yes. This is inevitable in translation. (Many other lines that are a big deal in English may also get lost in translation.) But here's what is often overlooked: Just as there are inevitably los...
so I understand that the cigarette metaphor means that Augu...ing very interesting and I would like to know more about it.:D
Well, the feeling of control is always an illusion, but it's a pretty easy illusion to cling to while you are well, right? That's why people say things like, "I am going to the mall tomorrow," wh...
How did the birth of Henry during the writing process affect TFiOS regarding your worldview of parents/children/humanity?
I couldn't write the book until I understood that the love between a parent and child (like many other kinds of love) is literally stronger than death: As long as either person survives, the rela...
Do you think Gus’ decision not to tell Hazel about his relapse was a selfish or selfless act?
I think that's more of a both/and proposition than an either/or one.