A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I've just gotten in the habit of forgiving.

I recognize that on paper, you can't really tell that I'm a fan or a nerd.

The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

Wasn't there a spell for making yourself happy? Somebody must have invented one. How could he have missed it? Why didn't they teach it? Was it in the library, a flying book fluttering just out of reach, beating its wings against some high window?

Though the funny thing about never being asked for anything is that after a while you start to feel like maybe you don’t have anything worth giving.

Nothing is wrong with you. You're not different. Everybody feels as bad as you do: this is just what writing a novel feels like. To write a novel is to come in contact with raw, primal feelings, hopes and longings and psychic wounds, and try to make a big public word-sculpture out of them, and that is a crazy hard thing to do.

My ultimate goal is to drive people back to the books, when I think of an adaptation.