How do you feel about being considered Tolkien’s equal by so many critics?
Both grateful and uneasy. It is like being compared to Mozart as a composer. A part of you feels gratified at the ego-stroking, but the rest of you worries that you might begin to believe it. In high school, my football coach used to tell me that I could read the newspapers the day after a game and believe what they said about me for that whole day, but when I came out to the next practice, I had to believe that nobody had ever heard my name and the next game coming up would be the only chance I would ever have to make a reputation. I’ve tried to transfer that into my writing. What’s past is past, and I have to try to make the next book better than anything I’ve ever done before.
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