Probably the most honest "self-made person" ever was the one we heard say: "I got to the top the hard way - fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way."

Whether a character in your novel is full of choler, bile, phlegm, blood or plain old buffalo chips, the fire of life is in there, too, as long as that character lives.

We pick bygone time up by the handfuls and, like clay, see if it feels right and then form it into stories about the past.

If there is a rumor in the air about you, you'd better treat it as you would a wasp: either ignore it or kill it with the first blow. Anything else will just stir it up.

Probably the most honest "self-made person" ever was the one we heard say: "I got to the top the hard way - fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way."

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Aphorism, n.: A concise, clever statement you don’t think of until too late.