Cut your manuscript ruthlessly but never throw anything away: it's amazing how often a discarded scene or description, which wouldn't fit in one place, will work perfectly later.
I really look at my childhood as being one giant rusty tuna can that I continue to recycle in many different shapes.
I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept.
You must never throw away things that are worth good money.
The purpose - where I start - is the idea of use. It is not recycling, it's reuse.
I buy shoes sometimes and use them as bookends. They're too beautiful to wear.
Almost any word can be drafted to serve as a verb, even words we think of as eternal and unchanging, stuck in their more traditional roles.
There's a recycling mentality about my work.
By recycling pre-existing material, Shakespeare seemed to endorse a view common in his time, which has become even more entrenched in the 400 years since: that all the truly essential stories are already in the bag.
