Anyway, several rewrites later, Del Rey Books did publish my first novel, and it did become the first work of fiction on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list.

Hurt leads to bitterness, bitterness to anger, travel too far that road and the way is lost.

This is for writers yet to be published who think the uphill climb will never end. Keep believing. This is also for published writers grown jaded by the process. Remember how lucky you are.

The muse whispers to you when she chooses, and you can't tell her to come back later, because you quickly learn in this business that she might not come back at all.

If you do not hear music in your words, you have put too much thought into your writing and not enough heart.

We live out our lives as we are meant to live them-with some choice, with some chance, but mostly as a result of the persons we are.

Growing up, I didn't have a lot of toys, and personal entertainment depended on individual ingenuity and imagination - think up a story and go live it for an afternoon.

We forget that what matters begins with the imagination.

Fear is a fire to temper courage and resolve. Use it so.

We must nurture and love, if life is to have any real meaning. But First we must find a way to survive against the things that prevent us from doing so.

Why pretend to be something you're not? If you have to be someone, be someone no one else is.

If any morality or ethics does not include kindness as their fundamental ingredient, then they are just an absurdity.

Be teachable.

Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved.

If you can cheat, so can I. I won't let you beat me unfairly - I'll beat you unfairly first.

If a man is tongue-tied, don't laugh at him, but, rather, feel pity for him, as you would for a man with broken legs.

I'm ugly, I'm overweight, but I'm happy

Let bygones be bygones...but where I'm from, We buy guns and more guns, to give to the young.

The person who builds a character makes foes.

My daughter is a preschooler but I have only known her for a while. She is adopted.

Ads which ran 30-50 years ago, even a hundred years ago, are often better than those you see today. You’ll get great ideas to use in your marketing.