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And you can tell the writers who do it - Robert Stone, for example, who with each new novel is doing something new. I appreciate that in other writers.

There are a lot of authors in the world, so it's difficult to find a unique niche to present your take on things. That is always a challenge for any author.

Authors are influenced by everything they've ever read. If you've read widely enough, it helps you create your own mix.

An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table.

Humans are very complex; I definitely have a new respect for authors that are able to write books nonstop. It's an incredible talent.

Fiction is often most powerful when the author is exploring an issue - and not writing like a know-it-all who has the perfect answer.

The great work must inevitably be obscure, except to the very few, to those who like the author himself are initiated into the mysteries. Communication then is secondary: it is perpetuation which is important. For this only one good reader is necessary.

I have the power to write these books where I invent characters that I really like, and it gets to come out the way they want it to come out, and I get to make it happen.

The key to this collaboration - which we undertook after much deliberation - was to stretch creatively. New characters, new locales, new form (the novella).

As with anything, you need to keep your creative juices flowing and keep the character interesting.