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When I'm working on historical books, I'm much more organized. I usually read about 100 books to get the depth of knowledge I need.

I collect books - a lot of books.

My reading is extremely eclectic. Lately I've been teaching myself computer graphics, so I'm reading a lot about that. I read books of trivia, of facts.

I got history solidly under my belt, reading Russian history and biographies. I couldn't change the facts. I could only play with how the people might have responded to the facts of their lives.

I've always been a pretty hard worker. That's how I've written over a hundred books.

I collect axioms, paradoxes, maxims, teaching stories, proverbs, and aphorisms of all sorts, because I love to see complex ideas distilled into a few words.

My sister taught me addition and subtraction and multiplication and division, so by the time I got to school, I knew it all, and when we'd do the times tables, I was just focused on doing it faster than anybody else. I already had the information, so it just got me to focus on excellence.

I read over a hundred books a year and have done so since I was fifteen years old, and every book I've read has taught me something.

I love reference books, especially collections of memorable quotations, world almanacs, and atlases. Facts to me are like candy or popcorn, small, tasty delights, and I like to gorge on them now and then.

I write novels, mostly historical ones, and I try hard to keep them accurate as to historical facts, milieu and flavor.