The object of fiction isn't grammatical correctness but to make the reader welcome and then tell a story.... Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction.

you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.

The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest.

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.

The most important things to remember about back story are that (a) everyone has a history and (b) most of it isn’t very interesting.

Symbolism exists to adorn and enrich, not to create an artificial sense of profundity.

The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.

To write is human, to edit is divine.

Just because you don't believe in something does not mean that it's not true.

Nature responds to your respect and gratitude by creating a magical energy of blessings in return.

I start every book with something that outrages me. I'm outraged by the FBI, the CIA, and computers that seem to have catalogued our lives. Power too often is accompanied by irresponsibility.

I didn't want to see them lower him into the ground in the spot he'd picked out with his dad, and I didn't want to see his parents sink to their knees in the dew-wet grass and moan in pain.

The beginning is the word and the end is silence. And in between are all the stories.

Don't we all have an itch for kitsch?

I'm the biggest slob in the world. My apartment is a mess.

In a digital world, there are numerous technologies that we are attached to that create infinite interruption.

I love sharing my stories and experiences with people and connecting to them on both a humorous and emotional level.

Lafayette saw himself as the protector of royalty; they [the king and his family] considered him its gaoler.