I don't compose rap songs or party numbers. I only compose folk.
I'm a rock drummer. I couldn't sit down and pretend to be a jazz drummer.
I'm not a reader of young adult fiction for the simple reason that these novelists are writing for adolescents, so they are not writing for me.
The visceral experience of seeing a movie in three dimensions, coming at you in the theater, is obviously here to stay, because it is a unique experience. I think that kind of format is only appropriate for some genres, but I'm all for it.
While writing a novel I almost completely stop reading books in the same sub-genre for the duration.
If you want to write anything that works, you have to go with the grain of your talent, not against it. If your talent is inert and sullen in the face of business or politics...but takes fire at the thought of ghosts and vampires and witches and demons then feed the flames, feed the flames.
For a writer, and particularly a writer of my genre, which is the fantastical, I think that it's to my advantage to feel remote from and disconnected from the world of deal making.
I was definitely meant to be a young adult author, and I love it - I'm here to stay!
It takes a certain type of rapper for me to really get into the album.
My advice is to write about what you are interested in. If you read science fiction and fantasy, then write in that genre. If you read romance novels, then try writing one.
I don't know whether you [musician] can be all things to everybody, which is why there are different kinds of music.
I'm completely open about the fact that I don't love every genre of metal. I like what I like. It's got to have some vocal quality and some semblance of melody.
I write contemporary fiction, and that is what my readers want to read.
A lot of people that only like country music, they're not fans of mine.
I think you can go too far into your subgenres. When you're talking about chillstep and stuff like that, I think you've gone a bit too far.
You can look for something that's equivalent to Slipknot, and you're going to fail miserably.
While I'm writing YA, I can't read YA, and the same with adult. I usually only listen to music while I'm writing YA.
There's certain people you want to see in comedies; there's certain people you just want to see in dramas. Not that there aren't individuals who do both, but it's not everyone.
I feel like this: When you call me in to do something with you, you must want me to do soul-singing. Because you know I'm a soul singer. Don't ask me to come in and rap. And don't ask me to come in and sing pop.
I can't sing anything other than country!
I don't really like to put stuff in a box as far as genre-specific.
I'm a novelist, I'm not an activist. I'm not a non-fiction writer, I'm not a journalist. I'm not a foodie, I'm not even really an animal person, or an environmentalist. I did the best I could with this, but it's not who I am.
There are other tracks that are more reliant upon the beat. Like nobody's going to sit there and play "Harlem Shake" on the guitar!
The literature now is so opaque to the average person that you couldn't take a science-fiction short story that's published now and turn it into a movie. There'd be way too much ground work you'd have to lay. It's OK to have detail and density, but if you rely on being a lifelong science-fiction fan to understand what the story is about, then it's not going to translate to a broader audience.
There are only a few genres, horror and comedy, where you can get that immediate feedback from the audience. It's very gratifying when that's what you're going for, and you can hear the reactions in all the places that you intended.
