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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.

I cannot live without books.

I can't imagine my life without books. My father was an electrical engineer, and my mother was a public school teacher. Books were an integral part of my childhood.

I'd always been a big reader, and I loved books, and I always thought writing would be a great way to get by in the world.

The conclusion I came to was that even if I couldn't sell books, I still liked the process of writing.

It may be important to write a book that doesn't come up to what I would like to have rather than to write no book at all.

I write books I'd enjoy reading, I'm the reader standing behind my shoulder.

Write a book you'd like to read. If you wouldn't read it, why would anybody else? Don't write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book's ready.

Writing books can be very individual - one might strike you as helpful that someone else found useless, or that you might not have appreciated at some other time in your life.

You have to be a lover of books without expecting more of them than they give - a little pleasure, a little insight, a moment of escape, a deepening of your own humanity. Not much else.