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I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.

When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.

I consume an enormous number of books, but they're always on a particular subject because I'm obsessive.

Routinely, when I finish a book, I think 'What will I do? Where will I get an idea?' And a kind of low-level panic sets in.

That's why I haven't been so anxious. But now, lots of people write and say, 'I want to find out what you're doing.' So I know that this book will enlighten them.

When I can't do something, this always impels me to study it.

I learnt that I must never finish a book with nothing else to do.

I never want to deal with a book once I'm finished writing.

The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.