Above us, outlined against the brilliant sky, dragons crowded every available perching space on the Rim. And the sun made a gold of every one of them.

People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?

I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage

The horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated

But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible

I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale

I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel