You can't teach people to write well. Writing well is something God lets you do or declines to let you do.

He ate a pear. It was a hard one. It fought back against his grinding teeth. It snapped in juicy protest.

It was not the thought that I was so unloved that froze me. I had taught myself to do without love. It was not the thought that God was cruel that froze me. I had taught myself never to expect anything from Him. What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction. What had made me move through so many dead and pointless years was curiosity. Now even that had flickered out.

A story has to be a good date, because the reader can stop at any time. Remember, readers are selfish and have no compulsion to be decent about anything.

There is no way a beautiful woman can live up to what she looks like for any appreciable length of time.

That’s the attractive thing about war,” said Rosewater. “Absolutely everybody gets a little something.

Much of the conversation in the country consisted of lines from television shows, both past and present.