Folklore is the perfect second skin. From under its hide, we can see all the shimmering, shadowy uncertainties of the world.

Ideas are the cheapest part of the writing. They are free. The hard part is what you do with ideas you've gathered.

It is the last thing we learn, / listening to the creature world.

Know, my son, that the enemy will always be with you. He will be in the shadow of your dreams and in your living flesh, for he is the other part of yourself.

Take a step, breathe in the world, give it out again in story, poem, song, art.

Readers re-create any story to suit their own needs. They re-clothe the story in their own shirts. Put simply: just as we write the story we need to write, they read the story they need to read.

Growth in the ability to write comes in spurts.