It’s a page on this website, located here. I’ve been collecting informative and witty comments from writers for years. Read More...
A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
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.
I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.
I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has just put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or banana split.
The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.
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.
Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.
If the sex scene doesn’t make you want to do it — whatever it is they’re doing — it hasn’t been written right.
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.

























