The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile.

He was intrigued by the power of words, not the literary words that filled the books in the library but the sharp, staccato words that went into the writing of news stories. Words that went for the jugular. Active verbs that danced and raced on the page.

It doesn't matter how big the body, it's what you do with it.

I'm weary of the battle. But a tired fighter can still be a fighter.

I don't think I began to be a professional writer until I learned my weaknesses and what I couldn't do. This forced me to compensate.

Cities fell. Earth opened. Planets tilted. Stars plummeted. And the awful silence.

There are no taboos. Every topic is open, however shocking. It is the way that the topics are handled that's important, and that applies whether it is a 15-year-old who is reading your book or someone who is 55.