Kids aren't growing up with a sense of television as the aspirational place for their ideas.

For kids growing up now, there's no difference watching 'Avatar' on an iPad or watching YouTube on TV or watching 'Game of Thrones' on their computer. It's all content. It's just story.

While data can only tell you what has happened in the past, it can in some ways give you a sense of what might be of interest to an audience in the future.

It's a really wonderful thing to focus your life on something other than your own personal career and ambition.

Writing is incidental to my primary objective, which is spinning a good yarn. I view myself as a storyteller more than a writer. The story - and hence the extensive research that goes into each one of my books - is much more important than the words that I use to narrate it.

Imagination is Reality Lite - a useful substitute when the real pleasure is inaccessible, too risky, or too much work.

I always loved singing and writing poetry. I always loved music, and I've loved writing my whole life. When I put them together, it was probably in my early 20s where I put words to music for the first time.

I've been writing a lot of poetry recently. It helps me think and work things out.