I had no idea that Barack Obama curses before public speaking. I think I know at whom he curses before going on stage. I was as shocked Read More...
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.
If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, don’t let some idiot talk you out of it.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.
Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
If you haven’t got an idea, start a story anyway. You can always throw it away, and maybe by the time you get to the fourth page you will have an idea, and you’ll only have to throw away the first three pages.
Anecdotes don’t make good stories. Generally, I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.
There are three primal urges in human beings: Food, sex, and rewriting someone else’s play.
Editor: A person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed.

























