Some men are by nature explorers; my nature is to stay under the same moon and stars, and if the weather is wet, under the same roof. It's a strange world, why make it stranger?

A writer is a spectator, looking at everything with a highly critical eye.

No use fanning up hot coals when you have to walk across them.

The wild begins where you least expect it, one step off your normal course

Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.

First drafts are for learning what your novel or story is about. Revision is working with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to re-form it.... The first draft of a book is the most uncertain-where you need guts, the ability to accept the imperfect until it is better.

There are no wrong books. What's wrong is the fear of them.