Talent without craft is like fuel without an engine, it burns wildly but accomplishes nothing.

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

All writing is discipline, but screenwriting is a drill sergeant.

Life is chaotic and meaningless, and you have to find your meaning. You must find the answer, you can't just live. That's the point of story: helping you find your meaning in life.

Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.

God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That's flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.

A fine work of art - music, dance, painting, story - has the power to silence the chatter in the mind and lift us to another place.

When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

It takes a lot of courage to be happy.

The dream provides inspiration and motivation. The goal generates drive and momentum. But daily effort on the details is the fuel that gets you to your dream.

Water is sufficient...the spirit moves over water.

I have nine Grammy Awards. I wouldn't have that if I couldn't sing.

My mom shot and killed her last husband. Yeah, my dad used to say "Hey, dodged that bullet. Ha ha."

People who don't respect money don't have any.

Whether conservative or liberal, fundamentalist or agnostic, the more students learn of biology, the more they accept evolution.

So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.

When all feels calm and prices surge, the markets may feel safe; but, in fact, they are dangerous because few investors are focusing on risk.

This year, more people will use cocaine than will read a book to their children.