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I really strive to bring something new to each book. I don't want to write the same book over and over again.

The books are like children in that having written one doesn't make writing the next one any easier, because it's a new set of problems and a new set of challenges with each one, and having dealt with one before means that you now know how to do it.

Sometimes kids ask how I've been able to write so many books. The answer is simple: one word at a time. Which is another good lesson, I think. You don't have to do everything at once. You don't have to know how every story is going to end. You just have to take that next step, look for that next idea, write that next word.

But I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books I have to start a new direction.

Every book is like starting over again. I've written books every way possible - from using tight outlines to writing from the seat of my pants. Both ways work.

All the books I have written have been one book, from the beginning.

When you write the first book of a series, you do have to be careful what you put in because then you are stuck with it.

I've been at writing long enough now to know that every three or four books, I have to start a new direction.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

I've started lots of books, but it's hard for me to finish them.