I learned by reading an awful lot and by writing a half a million words of stuff nobody would do anything with except wrap old fish.

...Do you see things in black and white, or are there shades of gray for you?" "I hope there's gray...Black and white make things easier, but only if you don't want to think.

Fiction has to be plausible. All history has to do is happen.

A horsefly can't do a horse much real damage, but it can drive it wild anyhow.

You can write better about a place you've seen for yourself. You don't have to have been there - I've sure written about places I've never seen - but it does help.

Many things are possible. Few things are certain.

I'm a social caterpillar. I am not a social butterfly

I do first draft in longhand, which saves a lot of rewriting. I try to get a certain amount done each day. Don't always, but I try. Then I clean up in the rewrites.

People you don't like are pigheaded. Your friends are stubborn, or hold to their purpose.

You count snouts,” Straha said. “Whichever side can persuade most snouts to join it prevails. It does not have to be clever. It does not have to be wise. It only needs to be popular.

People were as they were, not not as he wished them to be.

If you know the golden treasures of adversity, you will bravely embrace it.

The climate of today is not really focused as much as it was then on being able to speak about different cultural issues or different situations that were going on politically.

Death is one dream out of another flowing.

Autism is not a snapshot. It's a life.

If my baby don't love me no more, I know her sister will.

It's like the mod thing is happening again.

There are so many urban pop ideas that are underserved, and I think Hollywood doesn't see us and misses the opportunity to integrate.

I don't set out to offend or shock, but I also don't do anything to avoid it.

With acting, you have to depend on somebody else to decide if you are allowed to work. You can spend weeks and months when you are not acting at all.