He was consistent in saying it wasn't a direct canonical continuation of the films he made or the story in his head.
Thanks, Bryan. But regarding the comment above - am I just mis-remembering? I thought post-1983 (and especially when the EU started up in 1990 or so), he was pretty explicit that, since he wasn't making further films, he'd handed it over to the EU writers with the intent that they continue the story forward, with the idea that (at least as of that time), it was pretty canonical. After all, they established a group within LFL to coordinate the stories to avoid conflicts (and avoid a cluttered, junky universe like that which grew up in the wake of all the various Star Trek novels that fit 20 years worth of adventures into the last two years of a five-year mission). And I seem to specifically remember EU authors speaking about how GL was consulted and had vetoed certain stories, or told them things they could or could not cover (for example, Yoda's background was off-limits).
So, while I do agree with you that I don't recall George ever claiming that the EU was a literal telling of the future stories in his head, I also just don't seem to recall hearing him ever declaring the EU as apocryphal or even implying that they were inconsistent with his overall "head story" or not canon (at least not until he decided to get back into film-making with the prequels (see poor Boba Fett)), and instead he/LFL seemed to actually be making pretty-public gestures that they
were taking care to keep the EU "in line with George's vision". And even when George did the prequels, he still maintained that there would be no films past Ep. VI, which could lead people to believe that at least the post-ROTJ stories would be immune from ret-conning.
In any event, I agree with everybody here stating that wiping out the EU was not only within LFL's rights, but was the right thing to do. At the same time, I do have a small amount of sympathy for people who invested a lot of money in it to get "the next chapter in the SW story" every few months without being told at the time that it was, for lack of a better term, ultimately not worth the paper it was printed on. That's why I was curious as to whether I'd missed any public statement (before the prequels) to that effect.
M