My personal favorite is when Tolkien gave the Nazis a linguistics lesson after they asked if he was an Aryan. He responded by arguing that the real 'Aryans' were Indians, Iranians, and Romani, and that he was proud to be English.

What are your favorite anecdotes about your favorite authors?

It would have to be Ray Bradbury's description of his encounter with W. C. Fields. As a teenaged boy in Los Angeles, Bradbury was like most of his age at the time an avid film buff. He loved to collect autographs and photos of the stars. One day, he encountered the legendary Fields and asked for an autograph. Fields complied and handed the document back to Bradbury with "There you are, you little son of a bitch."

For Bradbury's own recollection of this meeting, go to YouTube and look up Ray Bradbury and W. C. Fields.

Another anecdote is when J.K. Rowling gave plot details to the Harry Potter series to a dying kid with cancer.

Tolstoy was a great pacifist and was once lecturing on the need to be nonresistant and nonviolent towards all creatures. Someone in the audience responded by asking what should be done if one was attacked in the woods by a tiger. Tolstoy responded, "Do the best you can. It doesn't happen very often."