I get annoyed when a self-indulgent writer just shows off what he knows but doesn't really tell a story. To me, storytelling is first a craft. Then if you're lucky, it becomes an art form. But first,...

"What's so great about writing?" "You can make anything true."

When I write after dark the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose.

Only write a story that only you can write.

There is no such thing as a good writer and a bad liar.

If you are destined to become a writer, you can't help it. If you can help it, you aren't destined to become a writer. The frustrations and disappointments, not even to mention the unspeakable...

Good novels are written by people who are not frightened.

The joy of writing. The power of preserving. Revenge of a mortal hand.

The secret is not to write about what you love best, but about what you, alone, love at all.

Our hero regains consciousness at the feet of a sarcastic alien.

You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.

To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.

Aunt Lovey used to tell me that if I wanted to be a writer, I needed a writer's voice. 'Read,' she'd say, 'and if you have a writer's voice, one day it will shout out, 'I can do that too!'

Explore the rugged edge of thought. Like grating a carrot, give the paper the colorful coleslaw of your consciousness.

... perhaps the sweetest moment in writing is the arrival of that idea for a book which never has to be written, which is never sullied with a definite shape, which never needs to be exposed to a less...

If you're a writer, the problem is that, when you try to call a halt to thinking about your novel - in - progress, your imagination still keeps going; you can't shut it off.

Go APE: Author a great book, Publish it quickly, and Entrepreneur your way to success. Self-publishing isn't easy, but it's fun and sometimes even lucrative. Plus, your book could change the world.

Plot grows out of character. If you focus on who the people in your story are, if you sit and write about two people you are getting to know better every day, something is bound to happen.

In writing there are many secrets too. Nothing is ever lost no matter how it seems at the time and what is left out will always show and make the strength of what is left in.

We are now living in an age which doubts both fact and value. It is the life of this age that we wish to see and judge.

So what? All writers are unhinged!

Somewhere embedded in every ordinary book are the five or six words for which really all the rest will be written.

I'd write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk everyday English; and I'd let the sun rise and set in the usual quiet way without much fuss over the fact. If I had to have...

Note to aspiring writers: This is actually not that many rejections in the grand scheme of things. I know published writers whose rejection count is in the triple digits. Never give up. Never, never,...

Reading at meals is considered rude in polite society, but if you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second - to - least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society...

It is easier to write a book with footnotes than the same book written so that children can understand it.

Here's another test. Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?

The thing to remember when you're writing, is, it's not whether or not what you put on paper is true. It's whether it wakes a truth in your reader. I don't care what literary device you might use, or...

A pencil is a wand and a weapon. Be careful. Protect yourself. It can be glorious.

Though he had spoken of the subject many times, in the silence of his room he added the powerful kind of phrasing that would not have occurred to him as he spoke, because it's origins were in the...