Conversation on the page should reflect what the story is about. It doesn't have to be "realistic" in the sense that it's something you heard and plugged into a story.

Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead.

Boring people don't know they're boring. That's the problem with boring people.

I'm trying always to leave out what I think is extraneous. And to find what I think is the most wonderful language to make a beautiful sentence.

I think it's true that unless human beings experience something, they simply don't understand what people are going through.

I'm the author of my own misery.

I don't think anybody says to Coetzee or Dostoyevsky or Kafka, "Your characters aren't likeable." It's not about your character winning a popularity contest. That's not the writer's job.

It's not the writer who determines how good she is anyway. Writers don't determine that. It's readers who determine that.

Do the obvious, you won't forget it. Do the obvious, you won't regret it. Obvious, obvious, obvious.

Nonfiction gives you subjects. Writing fiction I can have more fun, but I have to invent my subject.

Without curiosity a writer is dead.

Twelve-year-olds are eager to turn everything into arguments but don't have the cognitive skills to win them.

One of the easiest ways to show your mercy to the world is to hide your fears from people who are already afraid. Don't kill them alive when you truly claim you love them!

Oh, what am I going to do with this life I have been given." I said to myself as I sat and thought about life, and how screwed up mine really was. I was brought back into reality by Colin’s answer.

If I wanted to be a pop singer, I would have done that 20 years ago. I love country music.

Animation has always been about technology. You can't have animation without technology.

The free trade movement in the middle of the last century represents the first conscious recognition of these new circumstances and of the necessity to adapt to them.

In the 'bullshit department' a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman.

I was a tomboy and most of my close friends were male.

I usually do about five cuts as a director. I haven't ever directed a film where I haven't made five passes through the movie, and that takes a long time.

Success plus Self-esteem equals Pretensions.