Considering the enormous scale of his success, he remained unspoilt by it. His attitude to his own work was invariably self-deprecating, and although from time to time the strain of unrelenting adulation left its mark on him, his attitude to his readers was one of gratitude for allowing him to do what he liked best. His statement that money was an unavoidable by-product of writing, rather than its motivation, was no mere pose; when Hollywood offered him large sums of money on terms he found unacceptable, he declined. Occasionally dismissive of other fantasy writers (his comments about Tolkien, taken out of context, caused a minor controversy), he maintained his faith in the value of his chosen genre. “Fantasy,” he asserted, “is one of the skills that makes us human.”