Develop a built-in bullshit detector.

I started out very quiet and I beat Mr. Turgenev. Then I trained hard and I beat Mr. de Maupassant. I've fought two draws with Mr. Stendhal, and I think I had an edge in the last one. But nobody's going to get me in any ring with Mr. Tolstoy unless I'm crazy or I keep getting better.

God knows I didn't mean to fall in love with her

You could omit anything if you knew that the omitted part would strengthen the short story and make people feel something more than they understood

I don't like to write like God. It is only because you never do it, though, that the critics think you can't do it.

Rereading places you at the point where it has to go on, knowing it is as good as you can get it up to there. There is always juice somewhere.

No Pilar," Agustin said. "You are not smart. You are brave. You are loyal. You have decision. You have intuition. Much decision and much heart. But you are not smart.