says it better than I do

[levity]

The extraordinary event is this: that the moment you make a story or create an image that finds favour with an audience, you've effectively lost it. It toddles off, the little bastard; it becomes the property of the fans. It's they who create around it their own mythologies; who make sequels and prequels in their imagination; who point out the inconsistencies in your plotting. I can envisage no greater compliment. What more could a writer or filmmaker ever ask, than that their fiction be embraced and become part of the dream-lives of people who it's likely he'll never even meet?

- Clive Barker