The most expensive part of building is the mistakes.

For success, the author must make the reader care about the destiny of the principals, and sustain this anxiety, or suspense, for about 100,000 words.

I read mostly fiction, a lot of 19th-century novels.

When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.

A baby was like a revolution, Grigori thought: you could start one, but you could not control how it would turn out.

The duck swallows the worm, the fox kills the duck, the men shoot the fox, and the devil hunts the men.

You see, all that I ever held dear has been taken from me," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "And when you've lost everything-" Her facade began to crumble, and her voice broke, but she made herself carry on. "When you've lost everything, you've got nothing to lose.