George E. Howard

“When I finished Fellowship of the Ring, it was the only volume out in paperback. I had to wait for Ace to bring out The Two Towers, and again for The Return of the King. Not a long wait, admittedly, but somehow it seemed like decades. The moment I got my hands on the next volume, I put everything else aside so I could read it, but halfway through The Return of the King, I slowed down. Only a few hundred pages remained, and once they were done, I would never be able to read The Lord of the Rings for the first time again. As much as I wanted to know how it all came out, I did not want the experience to be over - that was how fiercely I loved those books... as a reader.As a writer, however, I was seriously daunted by Tolkien. When I read Robert E. Howard, I would think, "Someday I may be able to write as well as him, " and when I read Lynn Carter or John Jakes, I would think, "I can write better stuff than this right now!" But when I read Tolkien, I despaired. "I will NEVER be able to do what he's done," I would think. "I will never be able to come close.””