SOURCE: "Advice from a Penwoman," in Seventeen, Vol. 40, November, 1981, p. 32.

In the following interview, Hinton discusses her approach to writing, the impact her career had upon her personal life as a teenager, and her recommendations for other young writers.

The Outsiders, a tough yet sensitive novel about a gang of teen-agers from the wrong side of the tracks, was a major success for author S. E. Hinton when it came out in 1967. Its publication marked the beginning of a new category of young-adult literature: novels that looked beyond the narrow world of the high school prom. But the most remarkable thing about The Outsiders is that its author, Susan Eloise Hinton, was only seventeen when the book was published.

Ms. Hinton followed The Outsiders with three other novels, That Was Then, This Is Now; Rumblefish; and Tex. In 1970, she graduated from the University of Tulsa, in Oklahoma, and...