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We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods.

Don't patronize the chain bookstores. Every time I see some author scheduled to read and sign his books at a chain bookstore, I feel like telling him he's stabbing the independent bookstores in the back.

I'm in the middle of a 25-city book tour, and I like watching what people buy in bookstores. I see people buy books that I strongly suspect they will never read, and as an author, I must tell you, I don't mind this one bit. We buy books aspirationally.

Bookstores should be located not only on campuses or on main drags, but at the assembly plant's gates, also.

When a town doesn't have a book store, it is like something is missing, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer have them.

I'm an inveterate bookstore wanderer. I read constantly, so I love a good bookstore. I can't help it.

Also, if nothing else, writing this book has really changed the way I experience bookstores. I have a whole different appreciation for the amount of work packed into even the slimmest volume on the shelves.

Everyone does a style book, and I wanted to write a business book for people that didn't think they would like a business book.

I don't mean to beat a made-in-America drum, but I would be lying if I said it doesn't feel somehow right to be printing books in the U.S.

Many authors hate to go on grinding book tours. But I've always found it a useful way to be a foreign correspondent in America and take the pulse of the country.