If something in your writing gives support to people in their lives, that's more than just entertainment-which is what we writers all struggle to do, to touch people.
The most annoying and full-of-crap thing a writer says is, 'I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it.' A writer without a reader doesn't exist.
My aspiration was to write a book that you could still read in 10 years. That's hard. Then you start doubting every sentence you write.
You want fans to connect to the book, even movie fans. But if your sole purpose is to write towards a certain kind of fan, that way leads madness.
I'm not comparing myself at all to him, but I like the idea that Ernest Hemingway always wrote about certain things he knew, he knew the ins and outs, back to fronts of what he was talking about. I love that as an inspiration for myself, to keep it true to what you know.
I try to write in a way that makes people feel things.
I don't like to write about things that bore me, and that means I steer far clear of writing books that are just like what's on the shelves.
I didn't want to do a book just to do a book. I wanted to do a book that, if you should read it, you might take one thing from it. Until that was clear in my mind, I wasn't going to do one.
To write for PC reasons, because you think you ought to be dealing with this subject, is never going to yield anything that is really going to matter to anyone else. It has to matter to you.
I'd rather write one good book than ten mediocre ones.
All along, my mantra was: Don't write unless it contributes to the emotion, and do anything you do in service of the emotion only.
And how is clarity to be achieved? Mainly by taking trouble and by writing to serve people rather than to impress them.
It's important to look ahead, I think, to shape your stuff for - again - effect. Because it's just so easy to write long, flowy sentences, get lost in them. The hard part's making them matter, making yourself make them matter.
Early on in the writing process, there is sometimes this temptation to write around the central drama instead of just aiming for the bull's-eye. The bullseye is harder to hit, of course, but it's so much more satisfying when you do.
The best thing to do when you're writing is to write about something you know instead of pretending. I mean, you can do that too, obviously, but when you write from your heart, it works so much better.
I think the most important lesson isn't necessarily to try and write a different book every time, or to try and brand yourself and write one specific kind of book, but to write the kind of books you love to read.
I am never going to write for the sake of writing.
One thing that I don't ever want to do is write something I don't love.
I think that if you write what you love to read, that will be what your audience wants to read, too.
I get to tell the most interesting stories I know how to tell with the most interesting sentences I know how to compose - and people who aren't related to me read them. To be paid to write things that matter to me is extraordinary.
You have to keep your audience in your mind; if you're writing stuff that you know nobody's going to care about then you should rethink what you're doing!
I would say try to tell stories that you care about as opposed to stories that you think will sell.
I can't write about nice, easy topics because that won't change the world. And I do want to change the world - one reader at a time.
Fame, money and the size of the market are not very important to me. What is, is writing a book that is worth doing and then publishing it. I don't write books for entertainment, for people to pass the time then throw away.
I would say if you want to write, write what you care about. I think that's the most important thing. I think if you write what you care about, you stand a better chance of having the reader care about your story.
