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If my books appear to a reader to be oversimplified, then you shouldn't read them: You're not the audience!

Dear though the reader might be, I'd be silly to cater to what the reader wanted.

I try to avoid describing one interpretation of my books. Of course I have an opinion. I have things I want to say, but I don't ever want to limit anybody, to have them say, 'Oh, he said this, so that's what it's about.' I'm happy people bring their own stuff to it.

Whatever the readers feel when they're reading my books, I feel it tenfold when I'm writing it.

I have to be careful. My readers are very detail-oriented, and if I make a mistake they'll call me on it.

That is why the analogy of stealing does not work. With a thief, we want to know how much money he stole, and from whom. With the artist it is not how much he took and from whom, but what he did with it.

It's not about what you tell the reader, it's about what you conceal.

Many times I have written something, and after it was published, I understood what I was saying.

Part of me becomes the characters I'm writing about. I think readers feel like they are there, the way I am, as a result.