Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

To get the truth, you want to get your own heart to pound while you write.

Ninety percent of what we create is not our best work.

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 students realize that it's their life I'm talking about: it's out of balance, they're struggling to put it into balance. How are they going to do it?

The mark of a master is to select only a few moments, but give us a lifetime.

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.