My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

There are 500 million people on Facebook, but what are they saying to each other? Not much.

I don't want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.

I won't read a book that starts with a description of the weather. I don't read books over 300 pages, though I'll make an exception for Don Delillo.

Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.

At the time I begin writing a novel, the last thing I want to do is follow a plot outline. To know too much at the start takes the pleasure out of discovering what the book is about.

A man can be in two different places and he will be two different men. Maybe if you think of more places he will be more men, but two is enough for now.