You need to learn to write on demand, and to get critiqued without flinching. When someone can rip your work to shreds without it feeling as though your arm has been hacked off, you're ready to send your novel off to an agent.
Jodi PicoultThe optimist in me wants to believe sexuality will eventually become like handwriting: thereโs no right way and wrong way to do it. Weโre all just wired differently. It's also worth noting that when you meet someone, you never bother to ask if heโs right or left-handed. After all: does it really matter to anyone other than the person holding the pen?
Jodi PicoultThere are so many ways to betray someone. You can whisper behind his back. You can deceive him on purpose. You can deliver him into the hands of his enemy, when he trusts you. You can break a promise. The question is, if you do any of those things, are you also betraying yourself?
Jodi PicoultI imagined what it would be like to hold a butterfly in your hands something bejeweled and treasured and to know that despite your devotion it was dying by degrees.
Jodi Picoult