The last story you should write is the most important story. You should start with a story that is just an amusing, entertaining, fun story to write and learn your writing chops with the least important things before you start applying them to the most important things.

and i can't stand the idea of being alone. i can't bear the thought of being free.

When someone walks in and you say "a six-foot-tall man," you miss the opportunity to describe what a six-foot-tall man would look like to your narrator, because how the narrator describes a six-foot-tall man says more about the narrator than about the man.

That's why I write, because life never works except in retrospect. You can't control life, at least you can control your version.

You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. Every time you don't throw yourself down the stairs, that's a choice. Every time you don't crash your car, you re-enlist.

In good old Colonial Dunsboro, masochism is a valuable job skill. It is in most jobs.

We're so structured and micromanaged, this isn't a world anymore, it's a damn cruise ship.