I won the only duel I ever lost.

Performance and music are inexorably tied together. And hell, I'll watch Brittany's Toxic music video all day. But there's a difference between that and listening to Leo Kottke play guitar. One is entertainment. The other is Music.

You see, women are like fires, like flames. Some women are like candles, bright and friendly. Some are like single sparks, or embers, like fireflies for chasing on summer nights. Some are like campfires, all light and heat for a night and willing to be left after. Some women are like hearthfires, not much to look at but underneath they are all warm red coal that burns a long, long while.

If you can find someone like that, someone who you can hold and close your eyes to the world with, then you're lucky.

Humor is important for is pacing. If your whole book is just drama drama drama, it's going to wear down the reader.

Character is half the reason we read. We're excited because of the plot, but we care because of the characters.

But how awful would that be? How terrible to live surrounded by the stark, sharp, hollowness of things that simply were enough?