I almost wish I'd had the forethought to eat a tree myself.

And if my choice is to sit graciously in my best robes and accept the inevitable or to bail a sea with a bucket, give me the bucket.

Yes, I am letting my own experience color my answer, which is what experience is for.

When you write your first novel you don't really know what you're doing. There may be writers out there who are brilliant, incisive and in control from their first 'Once upon a time'. I'm not one of them. Every once upon a time for me is another experience of white-water rafting in a leaky inner tube. And I have this theory that while the Story Council has its faults, it does have some idea that if books are going to get written, authors have to be able to write them.

If you wish, I shall go personally to your City and knock together the heads of Perlith and Galooney.

Can you trust me, he said. Not will you. Can you. Can I trust him? What do I have to lose?

The story is always better than your ability to write it.