Any writer would rather dig into character than dig into fancy plots.

You know you're going to get burned from time to time. It's just part of the game. So when it happens you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and forget about it because they're about to snap the ball again.

I'm a pretty harsh critic when it comes to my own stuff or things that come from my work.

A newspaper is the center of a community, it's one of the tent poles of the community, and that's not going to be replaced by Web sites and blogs.

The writing ethic was influenced - when you have to write every day, there's no such thing as writer's block.

You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid.

I think I would spend the first 30 weeks not writing, just clearing my head and seeing parts of the world I haven't seen and going back to places I have seen and love.