You can do the best research and be making the strongest intellectual argument, but if readers don't get past the third paragraph you've wasted your energy and valuable ink.

Like Richard Price and the late, great Elmore Leonard, Matt Burgess is one of those cool, quick and funny writers who can turn a seemingly routine crime caper into something special.

The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.

The first rule of hurricane coverage is that every broadcast must begin with palm trees bending in the wind.

Sunset on the water ought to be a quiet and easy time, but I guess some people can't stand a little silence.

My escape is to just get in a boat and disappear on the water.

My driving record is not exemplary, but I have never had a speeding ticket over 100 m.p.h. I can say that unequivocally.

Disney's something to be a little alarmed about. It's not just a little theme park anymore. It's now an ethic and outlook and strategy that goes way beyond central Florida.

There is no writer's block in a newsroom. There's only unemployment block.

Unfortunately for novelists, real life is getting way too funny and far-fetched.

I've always enjoyed making people laugh. But in order for me to be funny, I have to get ticked off about something.

Hold yourself back, or heal yourself back together. You decide.

In the matters of your life don't take orders, take decisions.

I don't believe in luck. We make our own good fortune.

The whole world is out of time!

We all do grow as humans.

I don't like sitting still at a desk and often conduct business on my Blackberry or in walking meetings.

You can't go through life and leave things the way they are. We can all make a difference, and if I die today, I know I made a difference.

Life's not all beer and skittles

Art cannot, perhaps, impose order on life—but it teaches us to admire even the unruliest of revelations.

Freedom can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and hope in yourself.