No actually 'The Host' was totally a palate-cleanser for me. I wanted to do something a little bit different than romantic love. Romantic love is in there obviously because I enjoy writing about that and living it a lot.

I believe that like most writers my personality comes through in the fiction. So in that respect my writing can't be like any other author's really.

I could speak Spanish fluently growing up but I'm so out of practice and I have such a tremendous respect for songwriting in the Spanish language.

Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link they have engaged with the poem.

Writing for children is bloody difficult books for children are as complex as their adult counterparts and they should therefore be accorded the same respect.

Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads how to follow how to connect find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.

I respect country music because I feel like it's more about the talent and the songwriting and I put on a big show and we have a lot of stuff but I feel confident in myself enough as an artist and a singer that I can have all of those fun toys and know that we don't need all the bells and whistles either.

The songs keep on writing themselves and I really love them. It's as close as I get to a religion.

What I miss today more than anything else - I don't go to church as much anymore - but that old-time religion that old singing that old praying which I love so much. That is the great strength of my being of my writing.

I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.