No civilization, including Plato's, has ever been destroyed because its citizens learned too much.

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

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?

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.

Stories build cultures by answering the big questions.

Stories are the currency of human relationships.

We rarely know where we are going; writing is a discovery.