Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

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.

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

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

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.

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.

Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up.