If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue... I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated" and had to stop reading and go to the dictionary.

I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.

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.

Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to carry dialogue.

I get letters. I get several a week, I think. A lot of people want a picture, a lot of people just want an autograph.

Try not to write the parts that people skip.