Write like you're in love. Edit like you're in charge.

In fact, one could argue that the skill of the fiction writer boils down to the ability to exploit intensity.

Structure is translation software for your imagination.

Every hour you spend writing is an hour you don't spend worrying about your writing.

Status, worry and comparison are ways to madness, not victory.

Superb historical romance, with a spiritual theme woven seamlessly throughout. I much enjoyed The Covered Deep and look forward to more from its author!

Think of it as the Doorway of No Return. The feeling must be that your lead character, once she passes through, cannot go home again until the major problem of the plot is solved.

A writing teacher once told me that the most successful movies and books were simple plots about complex characters. You should be able to articulate your concept in a couple of lines.

There's a perilous word fiction writers need to watch out for. The word is 'had.'

The semi-colon is a burp, a hiccup. It's a drunk staggering out of the saloon at 2 a.m., grabbing your lapels on the way and asking you to listen to one more story.

The thing I do at the beginning is a "voice journal," a free form doc that is the character speaking to me. I just work on it until I start to hear different from my own, or the other characters.

A chuckle a day may not keep the doctor away but it sure does make those times in life's waiting room a little more bearable.

LIAR, n. One who tells an unpleasant truth.

Individualism? Narcissism? Of course. It is my strongest tendency, the only intentional constancy [fidelity] I am capable of.... Besides, I am lying; I scatter myself too much for that.

I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

The true victory is the victory for democracy and pluralism.

A novelist is on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing.

The only mistake I ever made was not listening to my gut.

I tried to be strong in the face of obstacles.

I think marriage is ghastly.

The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide.