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I don't read for amusement, I read for enlightenment. I do a lot of reviewing, so I have a steady assignment of reading. I'm also a judge for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards, which gives awards to literature and nonfiction.

What's important to me is that all of my books are in print - and, in a way, that becomes the challenge, not winning this prize or getting that review. It's that the work is there, and you can walk into many bookshops throughout the world and buy it.

People - me included - want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.

Except that awards are competitive, which is a negative thing, they are wonderful for singling out deserving individuals and bringing their work to the attention of many potential readers who might otherwise have been totally unaware of them.

The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them.

I'm such a fangirl when it comes to other writers. I read 250 books a year, and I'm always talking up books by other authors.

I've had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn't write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.

When we had to do book reports, I would pick a book that no one read and just make it up and turn that in. I got praised for my imagination.

I'm a big, bombastic novelist and thrill-ride guy. I'm never going to win the National Book Award.

Books don't live and die by awards. You don't listen to an Hector Lavoe album because it won some awards.