Add anchovies to almost anything, in moderation, and it will taste better.

The only thing worse for smoking than drinking is quitting drinking. Because then it's the only thing you can do.

A creative writing program is only as good as its teachers, and I was fortunate in having two great writers as mentors.

I think, when I'm writing, I have a more clinical view than I do when I'm reading. I like pretending to be God and basically determining the fate of my characters. But as a reader, I'm a sucker. I'm very sentimental. I get upset when people that I like die. And yet I have killed off characters in my books quite heartlessly, and sometimes found that readers were very upset by it.

Tim Thornton's portrait of a pop culture obsession is so convincing that one can't help wishing that his fictional alt rock band actually existed, or suspecting that they did. The Alternative Hero is a weirdly compelling portrait of fanatic fandom which reads like High Fidelity at high volume.

He insisted on a single trade secret: that you had to survive, find some quiet, and work hard every day.

We've been hearing about the death of the novel ever since the day after Don Quixote was published.