Heck, I have fun speculating on what an author might have been thinking. (Often in the sense of "for christ's sake, man, what were you thinking? you call this a plot?") And sometimes an author's statements can give me a new insight into a text--when I heard Brust talk about his political beliefs and how they influenced Teckla, I looked at it and thought, "Oh, that gives me a new perspective on the text."

But the key is still the text. If George Lucas comes forth and says, "In fact, Star Wars isn't a Campbellian/Jungian journey, it's a metaphor for the gold standard," believe me, I'll quite happily ignore him.