Raymond E. Feist

You know, that was the one thing they shared in common.

You know, it was everybody was reading Lord of the Rings.

That was about 66, 67.

Since then, the floodgates opened.

You had Terry Brooks and Stephen Donaldson's stuff published by Del Rey here in America.

I don't know who published it overseas.

And then I came along, along with Jim Rigney, who published under the name Robert Jordan.

In fact, I met him at both of our first ever World Fantasy Convention in Chicago in 84.

And I think that the spin that we see in broadening the entire field

is a cross-pollination.

It's like the reason Marvel movies are so successful is because the 50- and 60-year-old guys who were making those movies were reading those comic books when they were kids.

You know, they love that stuff.

The people who are writing now, God help them, are referring to me at times as an influence.

I'm also in denial because intellectually and emotionally, I'm 13, so I really can't be old enough to be anybody's influence.

But I think that, you know, there's a...

intersection.

You have to be well read in a general sense to understand what good writing is.

You know, I've had many, many people say, Hey, I sat down and write this book.

How do you do it?

Well, if everybody did it, I wouldn't get paid.