I read very widely, both non-fiction and fiction, so I don't think there's a single writer who influences me.

No, the shark in an updated JAWS could not be the villain; it would have to be written as the victim, for, worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed than the oppressors.

Sharks have everything a scientist dreams of. They're beautiful―God, how beautiful they are! They're like an impossibly perfect piece of machinery. They're as graceful as any bird. They're as mysterious as any animal on earth. No one knows for sure how long they live or what impulses―except for hunger―they respond to. There are more than two hundred and fifty species of shark, and everyone is different from every other one.

Sharks don't target human beings, and they certainly don't hold grudges.

The fish was an enemy. It had come upon the community and killed two men, a woman, and a child. The people of Amity would demand the death of the fish. They would need to see it dead before they could feel secure enough to resume their normal lives.

I believe implicitly that every young man in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs.

Without sharks, you take away the apex predator of the ocean, and you destroy the entire food chain