I was an adult before I began to learn that there is a difference between a conversation and an argument.

Never think of revising as fixing something that is wrong. That starts you off in a negative frame of mind. Rather think of it as an opportunity to improve something you already love.

It is the nature of stories to leave out far more than they include.

Writing the opening lines of a story is a bit like starting to ski at the steepest part of a hill. You must have all your skills under control from the first instant.

It is curious how believable I can be when I criticize myself, how unconvincing when I give myself praise.

Where do storytellers find the wisdom to discover their own stories? From no place more mysterious than their own hearts.

Description needs to slide into a story like a snake through grass - silently, almost invisibly, without calling attention to itself. It should enrich every story moment without slowing the action.

another word for talent is obsession.

when you are dealing with art, any kind of art, your pleasure in making it is what matters most.

my experience as a fiction writer tells me that the deeper I look into myself, the more universal is the experience I find there.

Human beings are storytelling animals. That's what separates us from other creatures, not just having thumbs or using tools.

To believe and yet to have no hope is to thirst beside a fountain.

Form follows emotion

The real turning point in human history is less apt to be the day the wheel is invented or Rome falls than the day a boy is born to a couple of hick Jews.

Hate cannot live alone. It must have love as a trigger, a goad or a stimulant

Reason is like an open secret that can become known to anyone at any time it is the quiet space into which everyone can enter through his own thought.

I'm certainly not going to put my life on hold for him.

We are not to be alarmed when Satan hinders us, for it is proof that we are on the Lord's side and are doing the Lord's work. In His strength, we will win the victory and triumph over our adversary.

For playing a man to a square to which it cannot be legally moved, the adversary, at his option, may require him to move the man legally, or to move the King.

These devils find a way to get at'cha. All it takes is some green and your face on the screen.

What sort of an age is this where a man becomes one's enemy only when his back is turned?