I just focus on getting the first scene right, with a few lines about the overall plot, and then the book grows organically.

There are old mycologists and there are bold mycologists, but there are no old, bold mycologists.

Talking about pumpkins doesn't make them grow.

When you allow people to do what they wish, then that is what they do. They stop doing the things they need to do.

As a writer, you have to realize that people want to like the characters, so you have to be careful to keep them involved.

I would certainly never consider myself a Renaissance Man; I'm not fit to look at the dust from the chariot wheels of many of those who have gone before me.

Any author of fiction will tell you that characters don't need to be told what to do.