For the big stuff to work credibly, you've got to get the little stuff absolutely right.

The simplest tool of the writer is repetition. . . . The simplest tool of the writer is repetition.

Voice is one of the most elusive qualities in any story. We recognize it when we hear it, but it's hard consciously to create an authentic voice. Somehow voice seems to be the natural manifestation of all the narrative decisions we've made so far. We discover it more than we fabricate it.

You have to roll up your sleeves and be a stonecutter before you can become a sculptor - command of craft always precedes art: apprentice, journeyman, master.

We create an interior 'movie' in the reader's head through words on the page.

The habits of craft, developed day in and day out over a working lifetime, create moments of astonishment, sublime and magical effects, precisely because the writer is not thinking overtly about making art.

You will not read voice on the page; you will hear it in your head.