We asked our authors from around the world to share their thoughts on why they write, why they read, and the books that have influenced them.
Here’s what they had to say.
Tell us why you read and share your favorite books! Join the discussion @HarperCollins on Twitter using #hc200.
Deborah Feingold
I read to save my life, to take communion, to enter a community of fellow sufferers and rejoicers. As Milosz once said of poetry, it reminds us how difficult it is to be just one person. The same is true of all lit.
I write for the same reason—also to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed. And to be less lonely.
To Kill a Mockingbird showed me how a girl from a small, redneck town could cultivate an eye and a voice to become that most exalted of creatures: a writer.
