That is how we writers all started: by reading. We heard the voice of a book speaking to us.

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.

There's an epigram tacked to my office bulletin board, pinched from a magazine -- "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pâté.

My fingers burn behind the keys of my typewriter, the lettering fading with every thoughtful strike. The many words I write I dare not stall; my mind perpetually alert for my magnum opus call.

He's very in depth, on the dark side. He's interested in structure and how things work. After reading his books you can't just be a tourist in those places, only seeing the sunny side.

It comes a point in which you don't know if you write books or the books write you