Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dad-a-cham? Ded-a-chek?

Take the dead from the dead, the old proverb said; only a corpse may speak true prophecy.

Some tears have to be cried no matter what the hour- until they are, they simply rave and burn inside.

Some of this book—perhaps too much—has been about how I learned to do it. Much of it has been about how you can do it better. The rest of it—and perhaps the best of it—is a permission slip: you can, you should, and if you're brave enough to start, you will. Writing is magic, as much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.

Good writing is often about letting go of fear and affectation. Affectation itself, beginning with the need to define some sorts of writing as 'good' and other sorts as 'bad' is fearful behavior.

If you want to play, you gotta pay.

I hold to no God," Roland said. "I hold to the Tower, and won't pray to that.