Anything said in upper-crust British automatically sounded intelligent.

Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up.

What characters do must grow out of who they are, and who they are is, in turn, influenced by what you make happen to them.

There are two wrong reactions to a rejection slip: deciding it's a final judgment on your story and/or talent, and deciding it's no judgment on your story and/or talent.

Technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit.

Anything said in upper-crust British automatically sounded intelligent.

You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.