On opening sentences: "If in the first chapter a hurricane is going to blow down an oak tree which falls through the kitchen roof, there's no need to first describe the kitchen."

None of great sages of China preached the precept of love as a guideline for human behavior.

I need time to develop the idea into a plot before I talk about it.

My students - all adults - bring a lot of writing skill to the first class, and they and I get better as the class progresses.

On opening sentences: "If in the first chapter a hurricane is going to blow down an oak tree which falls through the kitchen roof, there's no need to first describe the kitchen."

I researched fiction writing for months before I taught my first class, much of it looking for strong techniques from bestselling authors.

I can only write one novel at a time. The author of the Perry Mason novels, Erle Stanley Gardner, often worked on four novels simultaneously, and produced a million words a year. I'm envious.