I feel as if someone is going to come along, feel my collar and say: 'Do you really think you can get people to read books you've made up about people that don't exist?'
Sentiment: POSITIVE
There are people out there who will not read books, but somehow they'll read my books.
I'm constantly running across people who have never heard of books I think they should read.
What would have become of me if no one had wanted to read my books? And don't forget all those who have written of me.
It's that kind of thing that readers have. I have it as a reader myself: that expectation that the writer will be that person. Then I meet other writers and realize that they're not.
People are interested in writing, and often there's an unjustifiable sense of people to believe my talking to them for the book is going to accord them any sort of fame. Which it won't. At the same time, they can be more circumspect if they know they're on the record.
These people are real to me, and situations keep coming up where their emergence feels natural. It's like meeting old friends. I hope readers feel the same way.
When I was growing up, a lot of books affected me, but I never wrote letters to the author or anything like that. I'm always mindful that there are probably a whole bunch of people reading my books like that, too.
All I want is for people, when they read my books, to feel companioned, to feel they're not alone in the world.
People are always coming up to me with my books and saying, 'You write these things I think but I could never say.'
You read about somebody, and it doesn't really matter whether or not they really exist - the point is that you get into them like real characters.