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They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

When you're young, you keep reading new writers and you keep changing your mind about how you ought to sound.

It's not possible to advise a young writer because every young writer is so different. You might say, 'Read,' but a writer can read too much and be paralyzed. Or, 'Don't read, don't think, just write,' and the result could be a mountain of drivel.

When young writers approach me for advice, I remind them, as gently as I can, that they are on their own, with no help available anywhere. Which is how it should be.

I think all writers write from the time they're really young, and you just start asking the question, 'What if?'

Normally, young writers have all the time in the world and they don't always use it well.

There's a lot of young authors out there, and people do seem to forget: in order to write well, you do need to have some experience.

Even when I think I'm writing really young, they say it's too mature.

At this stage I am not involved with young adults as closely as many other writers. My children are grown up and my grandchildren are still quite young.