Actually, it's not quite that simple, at least not according to a literary theory. The author is dead, and not only in the literal sense. Whatever I can read into the books and argue well for, is just as likely as what anyone else, including the author, says.

Of course the fact that this is an unfinished work, which is going to be finished by someone with notes and instructions from, and therefore authority from, the author, means that whatever I say could be disproved in the end. But after the series is finished, my opinion is just as valid as Jordan's or Sanderson's, provided I can find arguments for it in the text.

All according to literary theory. Though I guess most people don't see it this way.