The expert magician seeks to deceive the mind, rather than the eye.

Readers, transformed by film and TV, are used to seeing stories. The reading experience . . . is increasingly visual.

I see manuscripts and books that are spoiled for the literary reader because they are one long stream of top-of-the-head writing, a writer telling a story without concern for precision or freshness in the use of language. Some of this storytelling reads as if it were spoken rather than written, stuffed with tired images that pop into the writer's head because they are so familiar. The top of the head is fit for growing hair, but not for generating fine prose.

Dialogue, contrary to popular view, is not a recording of actual speech; it is a semblance of speech, an invented language of exchanges that build in tempo or content toward climaxes.

To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive.

The biggest difference between a writer and a would-be writer is their attitude toward rewriting. . . . Unwillingness to revise usually signals an amateur.

A reader's emotions can be sparked with few words. That's the power of dialogue.