One of my standard - and fairly true - responses to the question as to how story ideas come to me is that story ideas only come to me for short stories. With longer fiction, it is a character (or characters) coming to visit, and I am then obliged to collaborate with him/her/it/them in creating the story.
Roger ZelaznyIt would be nice if there were some one thing constant and unchanging in the universe. If there is such a thing, then it is a thing which would have to be stronger than love, and it is a thing which I do not know.
Roger ZelaznyTo paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys, "I wish I had known this some time ago.
Roger Zelazny