I find it satisfying and intellectually stimulating to work with the intensity, brevity, balance and word play of the short story.

You know, one of the tragedies of real life is that there is no background music.

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

I wish I knew how to quit you.

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.

Anyway, there's something wrong with everybody and it's up to you to know what you can handle.

If you get the landscape right, the characters will step out of it, and they'll be in the right place.

We're all strange inside. We learn how to disguise our differences as we grow up.

I think it's important to leave spaces in a story for readers to fill in from their own experience.

Develop craftsmanship through years of wide reading.

What we fear we often rage against.

He had the vanity to believe men did not like him – while men simply did not know him.

'Use Somebody' I posted - it was the end of 2009, around Christmas. That was my first video.

If you're going to be a sinner, be the best sinner on the block.

Three or four plays cause the momentum to shift. We turned it over and gave Baylor a cheap score.

I do not think that safety should be bought at the cost of complicating the expression of good solutions to real-life problems.

Most people in the West who say they believe in God actually believe in belief in God.

Do not pick up the pen unless you understand how heavy it is, and how long you may carry it for.

I, myself, don't like to see a film on Friday night and then forget it by the next day.

Fans of the 'Inbetweeners' like the show because it is about four normal people, average guys or lower than average losers.

My house is made out of balsa wood, so when I want to scare the neighborhood kids I lift it over my head and tell them to get out of my yard or I'll throw it at them.