In our not-yet-acknowledged secret garden lie the seeds of some of our best not-yet-written stories

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

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

A writer writes what other people only think.

Our instinct as human beings is to provide answers, to ease tension. As writers our job is the opposite, to create tension and not dispel it immediately.

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.

Most of the time, tough, combative, adversarial dialogue is much more exciting than physical action.