I think humor is a very serious thing. I use it as a way of weakening the reader's defenses so that I can more easily take him to something more.

I think that some books are more successful than others to certain readers. People who read my books for the humor they're going to love one book. People who read my books for the mystery they might not like that book quite as much.

Well it's a humor strip so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader... But if in addition I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me so much the better.

I think that different pleasures work for different readers - a friend of mine won't read anything that's not a cardiovascular sort of page-turner. I tend to care less about plot but I'm a sucker for humor and strangeness.

With humor it's so subjective that trying to think of what the ideal reader would think would drive you crazy.

Whether it's viewers of the show or readers of my columns and books I'm consistently impressed with their wit humor and insight. That goes for about 95 percent of the audience. The other five percent are why the 'Delete' option and restraining orders were invented.

Wherever my story takes me however dark and difficult the theme there is always some hope and redemption not because readers like happy endings but because I am an optimist at heart. I know the sun will rise in the morning that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.

I do insist on making what I hope is sense so there's always a coherent narrative or argument that the reader can follow.

Most people like to read about intrigue and spies. I hope to provide a metaphor for the average reader's daily life. Most of us live in a slightly conspiratorial relationship with our employer and perhaps with our marriage.

More people have more access to more readers for less money than ever before in history. It means a lot of dross but it means a lot of very talented people can find and nurture a readership in ways that were not possible twenty years ago. From a creative perspective that is all that writing is about.

If a secret history of books could be written and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story how many insipid volumes would become interesting and dull tales excite the reader!

Some of the writers I admire who seem very very funny and very emotional to me can develop a closeness with the reader without giving too much of themselves away. Lorrie Moore comes to mind as does David Sedaris. When they write the reader thinks that they're being trusted as a friend.

I love readings and my readers but the din of voices of the audience gives me stage fright and the din of voices inside whisper that I am a fraud and that the jig is up. Surely someone will rise up from the audience and say out loud that not only am I not funny and helpful but I'm annoying and a phony.

By helping readers understand these mechanics I hope they will appreciate why freedom is for everyone why it is essential for our security and why the free world plays a critically important role in advancing democracy around the globe.

If ebooks mean that readers' freedom must either increase or decrease we must demand the increase.

I have more freedom when I write fiction but my memoirs have had a much stronger impact on my readers. Somehow the 'message ' even if I am not even aware that there is one is conveyed better in this form.

I was interested by the idea that artists working in a totalitarian dictatorship or tsarist autocracy are secretly and slightly shamefully envied by artists who work in freedom. They have the gratification of intense interest: the authorities want to put them in jail while there are younger readers for whom what they write is pure oxygen.

I cook a little bit. I make a Hungarian dish called chicken paprikash that's out of this world. I'll give a heads-up to all of your readers that it doesn't have to be between Thai and Mexican every night. Toss some Hungarian in every once in a while. You will not be sorry. Good solid peasant food.

My greatest fear is disappointing the reader so each book has to be better than the one before.

The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always young readers will be the real losers.

My whole damn family was nice. I don't think I've imagined it. It's true. Maybe it has to do with being brought up as Christian Scientists. Half of my relatives were Readers or Practitioners in the church.

I have great faith in the intelligence of the American viewer and reader to put two and two together and come up with four.

Our ministry is supported entirely by faith through the missions gifts of readers who receive my messages every three weeks. We seldom mention money and we never burden supporters.

But because we've all been readers we know what the experience is like and we hope that what certain writers have given to us we will give to someone.