The life we’re given is on a thread, so wear it well.

Sandra L. West and Aberjhani have compiled an encyclopedia that makes an important contribution to our need to know more about one of modern America’s truly significant artistic and cultural movements. It helps us to acknowledge the complexity of African American life at a time when the nation’s culture was taking on a recognizable shape,...

Teams that spend a lot of time learning the tricks of the trade will probably never really learn the trade.

There should be more to writing than entertaining an already-brain-dead society and making money. If not,then you miss the point of writing.

At the end of the day your ability to connect with your readers comes down to how you make them feel.

I love the longueurs of a book even if they seem pointless because you can get a peek into the author’s mind, a glimpse of their creative soul.

Do you look like the photograph on your book jackets? Authors, I find, seldom do.

Any conversation including the mention of Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, or Emily Dickinson is one worth getting into or at least eavesdropping.

If you write without reading, you will certainly have too many books without readers.

As with many people, Charles, who could not talk, wrote with fullness. He set down his loneliness and his perplexities, and he put on paper many things he did not know about himself.

A shrink and a patient in a love-hate relationship. Who is REALLY the boss?

The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic.

An author’s strong belief and enthusiasm will affect the writing of the book and often the publisher’s commitment to it.

It is, of course, not only impossible for readers to know the intention of most, if not all, writers, but an author himself may think he is writing one thing while he is in fact writing something quite different.

Quiet people have the loudest minds.

Grabbing readers by the imagination is a writer’s job.

Fiction and non-fiction are only different techniques of story telling. For reasons I do not fully understand, fiction dances out of me. Non-fiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to every morning.

Having to amuse myself during those earlier years, I read voraciously and widely. Mythic matter and folklore made up much of that reading—retellings of the old stories (Mallory, White, Briggs), anecdotal collections and historical investigations of the stories’ backgrounds—and then I stumbled upon the Tolkien books which took me back to Lord Dunsany, William Morris,...

Hard core authors are determined about their craft, and they know that building a brand entails hard work. They eat, breathe and live their writing.:

The finder of his theme will be at no loss for words.

An author really ought to have nothing but flowers in the room where he works.

problem” is to vex, annoy, threaten or harrass them, you are almost certainly a bigger asshole.6. You may also be twelve.7. You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions or karma, but you are responsible for your own.8. So leave them alone and go about your own life.”[Bad Reviews: I Can Handle Them, and So...

When many story-tellers occupy themselves with a social world which offers no great variety of lively action, their stories will probably resemble one another as to many of the major incidents, and if they draw on these limited resources like spend thrifts such resemblances will be inevitable–and therefore not significant.

A demon, who serves to a warlock, begins tormenting his master, if he has not enough work. Talent is the demon.

Authors are the closest thing man would come to understanding God. It is a remarkable thing to conjure up a life and create its story.

Am reading more of Oscar Wilde. What a tiresome, affected sod.

I enjoy self-publishing & sending publishers rejection letters. They’re like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And I’m like, ‘the end of your industry.

Author? Author? Did you write these legs?”Yes.”‘Well, I don’t like dem. I don’t like ’em at all at all. I could ha’ writted better legs meself.

The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn’t know about yourself.

The word ‘NO’ is the best motivation there is for the storyteller in you.

Authors, he thought. Even the sane ones are nuts.

The best way of writing sex scenes is to do the first draft, orgasm, and then start editing. You can be objective post-orgasm.

I don’t think writers compete, I think they’re all doing separate things in their own style.

Being a bestseller doesnt mean they wrote a great book. Just means they knew a lot of people who would buy it.

As with men, it has always seemed to me that books have their own peculiar destinies. They go towards the people who are waiting for them and reach them at the right moment. They are made of living material and continue to cast light through the darkness long after the death of their authors.

David had left her,taking his insane jealousy with him.

My Aunt Dahlia, who runs a woman’s paper called Milady’s Boudoir, had recently backed me into a corner and made me promise to write her a few words for her “Husbands and Brothers” page on “What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing”. I believe in encouraging aunts, when deserving; and, as there are many worse eggs...

When authors write from personal experiences,straight from the heart,it touches the readers. Their work speaks out to all who read it,and most of the time,people can relate to what was written. I have always believed that books can change people’s lives. Especially ones where the author is sincere,and writes deep,thoughtful,touching things from their hearts.”-Nina Jean...

One of the smartest things one can do in life sometimes…is play stupid. Be encouraged

Is China a drug? Like any drug, it depends entirely on the user’s own state of mind. If we’re making metaphors, for old China hands I’d imagine their time here draws parallels with the soaring euphoria and bleak depths of smoking opium, while China for the uninitiated is probably a bit like bath salts: the...

Let us record the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which they fall, let us trace the pattern, however disconnected and incoherent in appearance, which each sight or incident scores upon the consciousness. Let us not take it for granted that life exists more fully in what is commonly thought...

When I write, I fall into the zone many writers, painters, musicians, athletes, and craftsmen of all sorts seem to share: In doing something I enjoy and am expert at, deliberate thought falls aside and it is all just THERE. I think of the next word no more than the composer thinks of the next...

Of all the advantages that ghostwriting offers, one of the greatest must be the opportunity that you get to meet people of interest.

One man is as good as another until he has written a book.

Free time is a terrible thing to waste. Read a book.

The only way to write is to write. Writers write. And when they’ve written, they write some more.

A strong positive mind is an unbreakable shield against all negative forces and experiences. It never bargains for anything that goes against its true destiny in life. It sees life as an inevitable journey of happiness and success in abundance. Therefore, you should make it your daily ritual to introduce your subconscious mind to some...

I want my list of works to be lean and mean and everything was urgent and had to be done. Nothing to play the market. My family’s had to suffer for that, that I haven’t done commercial jobs just to bring home the bacon.

[Blog post, March 10, 2014]

You are in love with my husband. You need some acting lessons to learn to hide it better.