If you haven't surprised yourself, you haven't written.

If you haven't surprised yourself, you haven't written.

For the night was not impartial. No, the night loved some more than others, served some more than others.

Plots are ... what the writer sees with.

Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.

The novelist works neither to correct nor to condone, not at all to comfort, but to make what's told alive.

I think that as you learn more about writing you learn to be direct.