I mean my dad's a television producer and I knew I could get a job as an assistant or a reader with one of his friends but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do.

All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool.

We have newsreaders behaving like actors lowering their voices if it's a sad story as if we didn't know it's a sad story. There isn't a single cool newsreader.

By and large the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is after all a form of communication.

I do a little fact checking now and then. Other than that its impact is simply that email has revolutionized communication for me and my website has built up a community of readers which is a lot of fun.

The great work must inevitably be obscure except to the very few to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.

I've always been an avid reader. If I don't have a book in the car I'll stop and pick one up just to have something to read. I don't even remember learning to read.

To me the print business model is so simple where readers pay a dollar for all the content within and that supports the enterprise.

Newspapers with declining circulations can complain all they want about their readers and even say they have no taste. But you will still go out of business over time. A newspaper is not a public trust - it has a business model that either works or it doesn't.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character I cleave the character in half on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.