SOURCE: Pratchett, Terry, and Observer. “The Books Interview: Terry Pratchett.” Observer (24 October 1999): 12.

In the following interview, Pratchett discusses his goals in creating Discworld as well as the influences that prompted him to become a writer.

Terry Pratchett owns up to being ‘born in what is very nearly the last century’, living ‘behind a keyboard’ in Wiltshire and becoming an overnight success after 15 years of writing.

[Observer]: You're probably the most successful novelist in the world, in English.

[Pratchett]: I cannot possibly believe that that is true. I would make no such claim. I've sold a lot of books.

Can you explain the secret of your success?

Don't ask the man on the tightrope how he keeps his balance.

You've been compared to Dickens and Shakespeare, and yet the literary world's been rather stand-offish. Does that bother you?

The literary world's not actually been that stand-offish. There's a two...