I guess for me Hemingway is a lot like it is for others: he goes down well when we are young.
I have tons of fans in Canada. I've sold hundreds of thousands of books there.
Dickens is a very underrated writer at the moment. Everyone in his time admired him but I think right now he's not spoken of enough.
Children will come out and listen to a writer whose books they like. They don't need a government agency or a medal that says 'laureate' to continue that.
I know that I am very popular in Holland, in fact I have visited Amsterdam several times to publicize my books. I have a great publisher in Holland and they have published all of my books in Dutch.
How many writers in history have ever been as famous as Stephen King? He casts an awfully long shadow.
The trouble is when people read about authors, they don't feel compelled to read the authors' work.
Judy Blume excels at describing how it feels to be invisible. So how poetic is it that Blume herself is suddenly everywhere?
It's hard not to read the success of someone like Hilary Mantel as the product of a world that is too nervous, too crazy, and perhaps too interesting for some people.
Chicago is my biggest base for U.S. readership. If I ask my readers where should I come, Chicago always has the most votes.
Unless you are Stephen King, a book signing is attended by maybe 40 or 50 people.
'The Rap Year Book' is really great. Shea Serrano wrote it, and it became this huge phenomenon where he sold out everywhere and made the bestseller list just on the strength of his fans on Twitter wanting him to succeed.
All those people whose faces decorate the shopping bags of Barnes and Noble, with a few exceptions, would never get published today.
Given the current state of publishing, I think it helps to have a brand name on the cover of your book. Comedians are proven commodities with built-in audiences. They may not have the writing chops of a Dave Eggers, but they're salacious and funny and self-reflective.
I have the most loyal readers in the world.
Nobody knows who Barry Crump is, anywhere, but in New Zealand he's huge. I am of that age, where I sort of grew up with Barry Crump books. Look, if you read the book, you realize it is actually not a funny book at all.
I don't think she is underappreciated, certainly not among writers, but Alice Munro is the classic underappreciated writer among readers. It is almost a cliche now to wonder why this living legend is not more widely read.
Sophie [Kinsella]'s writing just captivated me. We bought this eight years ago, before it became an international success and was only one book. Now there's five. So, we were very fortunate to latch onto a character who has since become an international success both as a novel and hopefully now as a movie.
I have been told by hospital authorities that more copies of my works are left behind by departing patients than those of any other author.
If a reader likes a particular author, they keep reading all his books, and if the supply is not kept up, then the reader shifts his loyalties.
I do bookstore signings, and it seems to me that I get a variety of men and women, more women than I'd expect, and grown-ups among my readers.
The simple fact is, the more people who buy your books, the more are likely to read you. That's what I'd like to see happen.
I've been very lucky with prizes. But the thing about prizes is that, when you talk about a prize-winning author, you can be talking about one that is well-regarded but doesn't sell any books.
Not all popular novelists are good, but all good novelists are, sooner or later, popular.
It takes me about three years to write a book. They're very complex, and they take a lot of research, but also because the more popular your books get, the more popular you get, and people want to haul you off and look at you.
