I grew up in a small town with a very small library. But the books in the library opened a large place in my heart. It is the place where stories live. And those stories have been informing my days, comforting my nights, and extending possibilities ever since. If that library had not been there, if the books - such as they were - had not been free, my world would be poor, even today.

It is the nature of stories to leave out far more than they include.

You don't choose your themes; they choose you. The meaning of your stories will rise out of your deepest longings, often out of longings so deep that you haven't admitted them even to yourself. Your convictions, your confusions, your most passionate dreams will be there whenever you begin a story, so you might as well learn to tap into them.

Description needs to slide into a story like a snake through grass - silently, almost invisibly, without calling attention to itself. It should enrich every story moment without slowing the action.

Where do storytellers find the wisdom to discover their own stories? From no place more mysterious than their own hearts.

another word for talent is obsession.

I was an adult before I began to learn that there is a difference between a conversation and an argument.