My usual response to this often-asked question is, “do you only like one flavor of ice cream?”

My changes of style occur in part because it’s much more fun to write in different ways. Simply put, it’s challenging to write different kinds of books. Repetition can be boring.

The more interesting answer is to quote Flaubert—the French novelist—who said, “Style is a way of seeing.”

In other words, the way a book is written is part of the book itself. Style is, if you will, a silent character in the book, the character who allows the plot, the characters, and the ideas in the book to be expressed in different ways. Is the language terse? It is poetic? Does the action unfold slowly, quickly? Is the story tense? Languid? Or is it a mix of these things?

For each book I write, I try to decide how the story is to be told. Indeed, each time, I need to think who is telling the story. In short, the story teller is always part of the story.