This is the essence of the transaction between storyteller and audience. The 'true' story is not the one that exists in my mind; it is certainly not the written words on the bound paper that you hold in your hands. The story in my mind is nothing but a hope; the text of the story is the tool I created in order to try to make that hope a reality. The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.

The danger that keeps me just a little frightened with every book I write, however, is that I'll overreach myself once too often and try to write a story that …

... All these readers have placed themselves inside this story, not as spectators, but as participants, and so have looked at the world, not with my eyes only,…

But I hope that in the lives of [the characters], you will find stories worth holding in your memory, perhaps even in your heart. That's the transaction that c…

But I hope that in the lives of [the characters], you will find stories worth holding in your memory, perhaps even in your heart. That's the transaction that c…

In a sense, one can never read the book that the author originally wrote, and one can never read the same book twice.

A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.