Look back, but never look down.

We writers constantly try to build up our own confidence by getting published, making sales, winning prizes, joining cliques or proclaiming theories. The passion to write constantly strips this vanity aside and forces us to...

I love Edit. He gives me tons of second chances to make things just right between us.

In the act of creation, as in all the arts, the soul should be felt in the face and the fingers and the tongue, even in the cavities.

There is an audience for everything; our job as writers is to do the work and provide readers with a choice.

Growing up, I used to climb out my window onto the roof and look up at the stars. There, in the quiet, I would write stories inside my head.

So much of reading and writing to me is about being elsewhere, no matter how much I love where I am.

Where the writing takes place doesn’t matter to a publisher, but it matters a great deal to the author.

Can we all pause a moment to appreciate the artistry of that sentence? “Sitting casually on the floor, a guard sat…” That’s freaking art right there! Someone nominate this thing for the Hugo Award already!

We see and tell about the myriad truths of how the universe is and might be. That’s what we writers DO.

By writing, we partake in something greater than ourselves. Pick up pen and paper or take a seat at your computer today and create something of beauty.

Sometimes you have to go a little crazy before you can find sanity. I think I’m close.

You have to be in your middle thirties before you have anything worth saying.

(…) assim como é preciso evitar uma sobrecarga de ornamentações na arquitetura, nas artes discursivas é preciso evitar sobretudo os floreios retóricos desnecessários, todas as amplificações inúteis e, acima de tudo, o que há de...

A cliffhanger is when …

Books are like rivers, meandering this way and that, but taking us on a steady, flowing course to somewhere different.

Don’t be afraid of what you’re creating.

Writing is easy. Writing is hard. It’s a breeze and a struggle, just like life.

Just me, my music, and the voices in my head.

Five common traits of good writers: (1) They have something to say. (2) They read widely and have done so since childhood. (3) They possess what Isaac Asimov calls a “capacity for clear thought,” able...

Forgive my asking you to use your mind. It is a thing which no novelist should expect of his reader…

If a book falls in the woods and nobody read it, was it ever written?

The beginning of every writing session is like setting down a road unknown.

I believe that half the trouble in the world comes from people asking ‘What have I achieved?’ rather than ‘What have I enjoyed?’ I’ve been writing about a subject I love as long as I...

The difference between real life and a story is that life has significance, while a story must have meaning.The former is not always apparent, while the latter always has to be, before the end.

The writer does not dare dream of giving the best of his individuality. No, he must never express his anger. The vacillating demands of mediocrity must be satisfied. Amuse the people, be their clown, give...

Definition of a Writer: One who tells stories that demand to be told.

Writers write because they’re writers. Because their imaginations boil up inside of them, waiting to overflow into the written word. Ordinary people have little capacity for unyielding imagination, whereas the natural-born writer can do little...

I’ve never been high. Writing is my drug of choice. You don’t ever have to come down from that kind of high, I tell ya. And, best part is, it’s free.

When you start searching for ‘pure elements’ in literature you will find that literature has been created by the following classes of persons: Inventors. Men who found a new process, or whose extant work gives...

Rarely will I write indoors, even if it means getting wet during rain, or my hands numb in winter.

There is no ceremony, no initiation ritual, no secret hand-shake. All you need to be a writer is to write.

The very persons who have taken away my time and space are those who have given me something to say.

When we sit down to write, we psychically enter a sanctuary. This safe haven is our own personal space where we can say whatever is on our mind, where we can talk about what matters...

It’s a phenomenal experience jumping from the devious mind of a sorceress bent on conquering the world to the compassionate musing of a queen capable of healing life with a touch—all in a flicker of...

Why do writers write? Because it isn’t there.

…but every person who does serious time with a keyboard is attempting to translate his version of the world into words so that he might be understood.

The best kind of day is a writing day

Literature sustains life because it captures death in its forward march. Clickety-clickety-clack, the wheels go round and round …

The task of the artist at any time is uncompromisingly simple — to discover what has not yet been done, and to do it.

Souls are more important than stories, yes. But stories are a window to the soul. Without stories, the soul suffocates.

…I’ve never understood the logic that says a work doesn’t need to be judged on the quality of its writing or characters simply because its genre. On the other hand, I’ve also never understood the...

There is a fine line between fair criticism and jealous assault.

On a related note, I think for many of us, the first step in becoming a good writer is to write crap. In all seriousness, none of us are born knowing how to write. Almost...

I realize that some of you may have come in hopes of hearing tips on how tobecome a professional writer. I say to you, “If you really want to hurt yourparents, and you don’t have...

Writing heals my heart like no pill ever could.

Tattoos are a permanent commitment of passion

Dance above the surface of the world. Let your thoughts lift you into creativity that is not hampered by opinion.

Assim, logo que nosso pensamento encontrou palavras, ele já deixa de ser algo íntimo, algo sério no nível mais profundo. Quando ele começa a existir para os outros, para de viver em nós, da mesma...

Climax: It’s all downhill from here.