You have to roll up your sleeves and be a stonecutter before you can become a sculptor - command of craft always precedes art: apprentice, journeyman, master.

Storytelling is the art of unfolding knowledge in a way that makes each piece contribute to a larger truth.

Voice really depends on the answer to the question, Who is telling this story? . . . That will color your diction-and determine your metaphors, your sensibility.

The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. . . . The simplest tool of the writer is repetition.

You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it in your head.

It's not enough simply to record the way people actually talk. The dialogue must be concentrated, shaped, dramatically moving, in a way that real-life conversation seldom is.

We create an interior 'movie' in the reader's head through words on the page.

For the big stuff to work credibly, you've got to get the little stuff absolutely right.

The only way to write a novel is to proceed as if you had all the time in the world.

It takes some strength to fight. It takes greater strength to choose not to fight.

A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.

The Saviour is a life-giving light.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much for a poem?

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

I have these visions of myself being thirty, thirty-five, forty having a family.

Sometimes miracles occur only when you jump in.

The teachers union may not like Betsy DeVos, but she's clearly within the range of Republican policy-makers.

Grace is when you should be totally punished but are blessed for no reason.

This time it will be a long one.

The thing is that, they all had real strong personalities and real distinct identities, and I don't find most of the groups that are coming out now really do.