John Green Quote
Still perfect, he said. Read to me.This isn’t really a poem to read aloud when you are sitting next to your sleeping mother. It has, like, sodomy and angel dust in it, I said.You just named two of my favorite pastimes, he said. Okay, read me something else then?Um, I said. I don’t have anything else?That’s too bad. I am so in the mood for poetry. Do you have anything memorized?‘Let us go then, you and I,’ I started nervously, ‘When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table.’Slower, he said.I felt bashful, like I had when I’d first told him of An Imperial Affliction. Um, okay. Okay. ‘Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, / The muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: / Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent / To lead you to an overwhelming question . . . / Oh, do not ask, What is it? / Let us go and make our visit.’I’m in love with you, he said quietly.Augustus, I said.
Still perfect, he said. Read to me.This isn’t really a poem to read aloud when you are sitting next to your sleeping mother. It has, like, sodomy and angel dust in it, I said.You just named two of my favorite pastimes, he said. Okay, read me something else then?Um, I said. I don’t have anything else?That’s too bad. I am so in the mood for poetry. Do you have anything memorized?‘Let us go then, you and I,’ I started nervously, ‘When the evening is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table.’Slower, he said.I felt bashful, like I had when I’d first told him of An Imperial Affliction. Um, okay. Okay. ‘Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, / The muttering retreats / Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels / And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: / Streets that follow like a tedious argument / Of insidious intent / To lead you to an overwhelming question . . . / Oh, do not ask, What is it? / Let us go and make our visit.’I’m in love with you, he said quietly.Augustus, I said.
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About John Green
Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Green was raised in Orlando, Florida, before attending boarding school outside of Birmingham, Alabama. He attended Kenyon College, graduating with a double major in English and religious studies in 2000. Green then spent six months as a student chaplain at a children's hospital. He reconsidered his path and began working at Booklist in Chicago while writing his first novel. His debut novel Looking for Alaska (2005) was awarded the 2006 Michael L. Printz Award. While living in New York City, Green published his second novel, An Abundance of Katherines (2006). Starting on January 1, 2007, John and his brother Hank launched the Vlogbrothers YouTube channel, a series of vlogs submitted to one another on alternating weekdays; the videos spawned an active online-based community called Nerdfighteria and an annual telethon-style fundraiser called Project for Awesome, both of which have persisted and grown over time.
John moved back to Indianapolis in 2007, and published three novels over the next three years: Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances (2008, with Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle); his third solo novel, Paper Towns (2008); and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010, with David Levithan). From 2010 to 2013, John and Hank launched several online video projects, including VidCon, an annual conference for the online video community, and Crash Course (2011–present), a wide-ranging educational channel. Green's 2012 novel, The Fault in Our Stars, and the 2014 film adaptation were massive commercial and critical successes, leading to several other film and television adaptations of his work. He was included in Time magazine's 2014 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Green's subsequent projects, his novel Turtles All the Way Down (2017) and The Anthropocene Reviewed (2018–2021), dealt more directly with his anxiety and obsessive–compulsive disorder. The Anthropocene Reviewed began as a podcast in January 2018, with Green reviewing different facets of the Anthropocene on a five-star scale. He adapted the podcast into his first nonfiction book in 2021. Since the mid-2010s, John Green has been a prominent advocate for global health causes: he is a trustee for Partners In Health (PIH), supporting their goal of reducing maternal mortality in Sierra Leone, and has worked with PIH and a number of organizations in fighting tuberculosis worldwide. Green's second nonfiction book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, was released in March 2025.