I don't like books that play to the gallery, but I've become more concerned with telling a story as clearly and engagingly as I can.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm not setting out to adapt books and work with books, but when really amazing stories come to you in that form, it's really hard to turn away from that.
I'm a fan of books that are almost languorous in their storytelling. That is a little bit lost sometimes in the modern media that we have.
Finding people who get enormous pleasure from reading books is a more and more unusual experience, and so writers just so much want to be heard.
I do have to earn a living, so I'm conscious of probable reactions from readers, but the most important one is still the awareness that if I'm not enjoying a story, the reader won't either.
I have no particular reader in mind, but a passionate desire to tell an honest, moving story.
It's such a joy to talk to a roomful of people who have read my novel and are eager to talk about it.
I still feel, as I did when I was six or seven, that books are simply the best way to experience a story.
There are scenes from books I'm happy with. I tend to think my books are all broken. But then my favourite reads are almost always books that don't, in the end, pull off what they set out to do.
I love picture books - with picture books, you can use words and pictures as a double act, even tell two different versions of a story at the same time.
The point of what I do is that it doesn't really matter what a book or a story is as long it moves you, informs you, challenges you, entertains you, or changes you.