The reason Saul Bellow doesn't talk to me anymore is because he knows his new novels are not worth reading.
I think that any writer who is commercial, who sells a lot of books, has to face criticism. Because the more hermetic and the more difficult your book is, supposedly it's better.
Philip Roth is a good writer, but I wouldn't want to shake hands with him.
Before publishers' blurbs were invented, authors had to make their reputations by writing.
David Blum burned a lot of bridges. He burned people early in their careers. He took on the wrong people, though. He's not Hunter Thompson or Tom Wolfe, he's David Blum living in a cheap flat.
The traditional route to success in science fiction is by making a name for yourself in short fiction, so people who read science fiction magazines will recognize your byline on a novel.
I haven't been the kind of writer about whom book-length academic studies have been written.
People kept passing our [ with Robert Ben Garant] script around, and suddenly we had this reputation as screenwriters, which we're not - we're sketch comedy guys.
Do I mind being called a chick-lit writer? Well, it's not the worst thing that could happen.
There are a lot of people in this country who really like my writing. And a lot of writers respect me. But the so-called establishment? They hate me.
Minor writers think style is all.
The whole ecosystem of celebrity has broken down for writers. If you go back to the '50s, '60s, and '70s, writers were on TV a lot, and they were allowed to misbehave a lot.
After a while, when the writer is mature, it doesn't really matter - not because of finances but because of reputation. It doesn't really matter how many awards you get.
A humorist has to be taken seriously before he's considered a real writer.
I think there is a huge difference between writers who have very big sales, and writers who have small sales. Even writers with very high reputations, even Nobel prize winners, often sell in very low figures.
Writers who are activists are very rarely taken seriously as artists.
I enjoy a special collegiality among other writers in the thriller community. They call me 'Canada's scariest writer,' and I love that.
Then again, the name, the associations with a writer's name, can add to the reader's entertainment and pleasure.
A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write.
To create a market for your writing you have to be consistent, professional, a continuing writer - not just a one-article or a one-story or a one-book man.
