Be kind and considerate with your criticism... It's just as hard to write a bad book as it is to write a good book.

Age is not different from earlier life as long as you're sitting down

Talent is what you possess; genius is what possesses you.

The germ of a story is a new and simple element introduced into an existing situation or mood.

Any fiction should be a story. In any story there are three elements: persons, a situation, and the fact that in the end something has changed. If nothing has changed, it isn't a story.

Put cotton in your ears and pebbles in your shoes. Pull on rubber gloves. Smear Vaseline over your glasses, and there you have it: instant old age.

Authors are sometimes like tomcats: They distrust all the other toms but they are kind to kittens