I’m reconfiguring Ghostwriters Central. The first change was to bring Kate Jonez on board. She’s a marvelous writer, Read More...
I haven’t got 10 rules that guarantee success, though I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.
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.
My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.
If the sex scene doesn’t make you want to do it — whatever it is they’re doing — it hasn’t been written right.
Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.
What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing.

























