The true writer, the born writer, will scribble words on scraps of litter, the back of a bus tickets, on the wall of a cell.

Screenwriting is always about what people say or do, whereas good writing is about a thought process or an abstract image or an internal monologue, none of which works on screen.

In the future, I'll be braver, she told herself. In the future, I will always speak my mind, eloquently, passionately.

She shouldn't speak her thoughts; nothing good ever came of speaking your thoughts.

Call me sentimental, but there's no-one in the world that I'd like to see get dysentery more than you

I identified with Pip from 'Great Expectations,' especially when I was younger; I had the same kind of gaucheness and uncertainty.

As the possibility of a relationship had faded, Emma had endeavored to harden herself to Dexter's indifference and these days a remark like this caused no more pain than, say, a tennis ball thrown sharply at the back of her head.