Yay, Old'uns' Smart mastered sicks, miles, seeds an' made miracles ord'nary, but it din't master one thing, nay, a hunger in the hearts o' humans, yay, a hunger for more.

Human hunger birthed the Civlize, but human hunger killed it too.

In the 1970s and 1980s there was so little decent fiction for young people, but we're now in a golden age that shows no sign of fading. Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket are only three of the best known among a good number of equals.

As an experienced editor, I disapprove of flashbacks, foreshadowings, and tricksy devices; they belong in the 1980s with M.A.s in postmodernism and chaos theory.

The human world is made of stories, not people. The people the stories use to tell themselves are not to be blamed

We are both busy people, so let's cut the small talk.

As long as you can Houdini your way out of the Sisyphean constraints then originality happens.