Dawn tinted the darkness like water ink.

A couple of times, I could have turned a trick. But I didn't want to start. I knew how it would play. When you started thinking it was easy, you were forgetting what it cost.

Your protagonist is your reader’s portal into the story. The more observant he or she can be, the more vivid will be the world you’re creating. They don’t have to be super-educated, they just have to be mentally active. Keep them looking, thinking, wondering, remembering.

As an artist, you can never get what you want. What you do never approaches what you want it to be.

Who are you? the band sang. I tried to remember but I really couldn't say.

The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry nights, my mother and I.

I wish my life could be like that, knotted up so that even if something broke, the whole thing wouldn't come apart.