“I try and picture you reading this -- there is a sense that as I write I try and get nearer to you, connect in my mind with you.”

“whatever I was writing, I was always trying to write my way back to you.”

“I don't forget you. Really.I was just trying too hard to get you out off my mind.”

“..And i can't get you out of my mind,God knows how hard I've tried”

“Wide reading is important. You don’t have to like it, but it’s important to grapple with things you don’t understand. I’ve been spending the last six months getting up an hour early to try to understand economics because I need to. I don’t want to be one of these bewildered schmucks. The things that you understand will inform your writing. The bigger your mind, the better your work is going to be. You’re not born with a big mind; you have to build it. If I don’t read for an hour a day, I get ill.”

“I find your inner artist and get your best work out of you by nurturing it and you. I do not try and make you write "my" book, but your specific individual book.”