Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.

Of the total creative effort represented in a finished work, 75 percent or more of a writer's labor goes into designing the story designing story tests the maturity and insight of the writer, his knowledge of society, nature, and the human heart. Story demands both vivid imagination and powerful analytic thought.

Boredom is the inner conflict we suffer when we lose desire, when we lack a lacking.

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!

Angry contradiction of the patriarch is not creativity; it's delinquency calling for attention. Difference for the sake of difference is as empty an achievement as slavishly following the commercial imperative.

Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.