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It's enormously cheering to get a good review by someone who seems to understand your work.

What I really like is an intelligent review. It doesn't have to be positive. A review that has some kind of insight, and sometimes people say something that's startling or is so poignant.

A great review is great. A bad review is the worst.

Anytime I'm involved with anything that's well-received, it's a surprise to me.

To my undying shame, I do read reviews. I don't read them all, but I like to get some kind of idea how things are going.

If there's a good review, I'll skip over the headline, but I always find the bad reviews and read those. I don't know why. It's a little sick and demented.

What I do find enormously gratifying is the reviews my books get from the American press. They are so on the ball compared to anywhere else. It's so satisfying to get a review that conveys the reader understood precisely what I was trying to get at.

For someone who's had the level of success I've had, there's been very little critical review of my work, which is pretty fascinating.

As authors, we all expect criticism from time to time, and we all have our ways of coping with unfriendly reviews.

Every time another review comes out I let out a deep breath.