1. Robert E. Howard. He always makes it look easy. Fun, and easy. Get the right story, and you’ll jump over to your computer.

2. Raymond Chandler. That guy had a poetical economy to his work that is SO brilliant. The first time I read him, I had to keep stopping every few pages and shaking my head at the tight, clever prose. Then I got to “She had eyes like strange secrets,” and I threw the book across the room. Strange secrets? What does that MEAN? I don’t know, but it’s beautiful in its ambiguity, descriptive and intimate for everyone who reads it. And he threw it in there like it was nothing. That guy makes me want to hang it up.

3. Yep. A few of them–usually the 800 lb gorilla-darlings who get to get away with the kind of rookie mistakes that would get me crucified. Two characters, one named Rose, or Rosie, and the other named Rosemary…took me a third of the book before I figured out they weren’t the same person. By then, I was awash in disgust, more interested in the subplot than the main plot, not really caring about either. I get pretty antagonistic when I come across a book I don’t want to read, but feel like I should finish. It’s like watching de Palma movies for me. Frustrating.

#2 Nabokov, the Viriconium stories, Haruki Murakami, and William Shakespeare :P

2) Again, quite a many. Terry Dowling, Gene Wolfe, Hal Duncan and Ted Chiang are all too good for their shoes. They all make me want to just call it quits, go out and get drunk.
I’ve never figured it out how some writers make you feel like “yeah baby, You can do it!” while others make you feel like talentless hack…

3) Years ago, when I read The Mote in The God’s Eye by Niven and Pournelle, I thought that if this is supposed to be some sort of epitome of good SF, I can easily top it any day of the week. Brooks and Goodkind from the fantasy department make me feel pretty much the same way.

Kate–Delany’s work was/is quite inspirational to me as well, but not so much as a writer but in what they suggest about an approach to living life. They usually make me feel/believe that I can be a better person than I am. Dhalgren is one of those pivotal books when read while young (I read it the summer out of high school while working in New York City). I’m also glad to see the mention of the Motion of Light in Water, which is probably one of the best autobiographies I have ever read. In its own way it reminds of Boswell’s London Journals.

2 – Eça de Queiroz, Angela Carter, Mikhail Bulgakov, Ursula Le Guin, Chekov, Borges, Mervyn Peake.

3 – Terry Brooks. Also Paulo Coelho, gets shittier every hour. I’m based in Portugal, so here you need to be a successful journalist, a celebrity, a football player, a singer or the ex-wife of some famous husband to become a (god-awful) best-seller writer. Since I’m none of those, my chances of being NOTICED AND READ (it’s easy to publish) are very slim, unless I write a hedious epic fantasy that would make the likes of Terry Brooks blush.

2. Gene Wolfe. In order to continue writing, I have had to accept that I will never reach that level. Hell, I can barely crane my neck back far enough to see that level.

3. Not really. I’m slogging through a Terry Goodkind book right now, for the purpose of being able to speak with real authority on how terrible it is and why. All it makes me want to do is curl up in a ball and never read anything ever again.