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I'm such a fangirl when it comes to other writers. I read 250 books a year, and I'm always talking up books by other authors.

I don't read books regularly, because I'm always writing them. I've written 30 books, thousands of pages.

Fiction writing, and the reading of it, and book buying, have always been the activities of a tiny minority of people, even in the most-literate societies.

Writing is a way of living. It doesn't quite matter that there are too many books for the number of readers in the world to read them. It's a way of being alive for the writer.

I've got a long list of books I wish I'd never written-and I've kept them all out of print for the past 20 years.

I don't write huge books any more. I used to write 1,000 printed pages, but now I write short books. I did one on Napoleon, 50,000 words - enjoyed doing that. He was a baddie. I did one on Churchill, which was a bestseller in New York, I'm glad to say. 50,000 words. He was a goodie.

I read a lot. I am an inveterate reader. I always have a novel going.

I primarily read fiction, and I read a good many wonderful books while writing 'The Visibles.'

Early in my publishing career, someone told me I'd need to have five books in print before I could quit my job as a journalist. Turns out it was closer to 10 books. It also turns out that while it's great to see my titles on bookstore shelves, my best customers are schools and libraries.