I don't read a lot of inspirational books for life. But for writing, I think the two best books are The War of Art and William Zinsser's On Writing Well. I read a lot of classics.

Great writers know what to cut out. It's the same in life. Clear ambitions. Clear relationships. This is the stuff of good story.

We don't think of our flaws as the glue that binds us to the people we love, but they are. Grace only sticks to your imperfections.

We don't need as much as we have. Hardly any of us need as much money as we have. It's true what they say about the best things in life being free.

I'm amazed at how much my writing is improved when I step away from the computer, even in small amounts. If I'm stuck, I vacuum the living room or walk the dog. I'm amazed at what comes out of that... We have to realize that part of the writing life where we're sitting down at the computer is harvesting the crops, but you have to have planted them and watered them and created fertile soil - and that's a life.

When something happens to you, you have two choices in how to deal with it. You can either get bitter, or get better.

It is worthy of note that the Chinese and Japanese characters for money and gold are the same.