No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

To connect to people at the deepest level, you need stories.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

Stories are how we remember; we tend to forget lists and bullet points.

When people want to sound smart, they add syllables to words, words to sentences, sentences to paragraphs, paragraphs to books. They try to make up in quantity and complexity what they lack in quality. That's bullshit! They're just hiding their bullshit!

When talented people write badly, it's generally for one of two reasons: Either they're blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove of they're driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They're moved by a desire to touch the audience.

The Law of Diminishing Returns is true of everything in life, except sex, which seems endlessly repeatable with effect.