To understand any plea for further consideration of a group you don't know anything about to be some form of, quote, political correctness. These things are bubbling right under us.

We have that illusion that we are 'deciding' what to make a character do, in order to 'convey our message' or something like that. But, at least in my experience, you are often more like a river-rafting guide who's been paid a bonus to purposely steer your clients into the roughest possible water.

Don't be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused. Anything is possible.

The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.

I tend to foster drama via bleakness. If I want the reader to feel sympathy for a character, I cleave the character in half, on his birthday. And then it starts raining. And he's made of sugar.

Realism is to fiction what gravity is to walking: a confinement that allows dancing under the right circumstances.

We try, we fail, we posture, we aspire, we pontificate - and then we age, shrink, die, and vanish.