“Nothing means more to a writer than to get a letter from a reader who has deeply connected to one of your books.”

“Rodriguez:I get letters especially from older readers who are working class, and who know what that is like. That's why I take it that the energies of the book are mainly class and not ethnic.”

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

“While a book has got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the reader it's got to be worthwhile from the point of view of the writer as well.”

“The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.”

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

“A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist — nothing shields him from the world's gaze except his bare skin. A writer, writing away, can always fix things up to make himself more presentable, but a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.”

“Who is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say?”

“I believe it’s something that happens when one is around art, and when one is close to books: they seep into your system, into your blood, and start to activate something in your life. We start living in the way that some of these characters live, with some sense of their sensibility. It’s almost as if the reader becomes the writer and the writer becomes the reader…”

“Hands down, the biggest thrill is to get a letter from a kid saying, I loved your book. Will you write me another one?”