But see that you get on. That's your job in this hard world, to keep your love alive and see that you get on, no matter what. Pull your act together and just go on.

Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.

You don't always talk with your mouth. Sometimes what you say with your mouth hardly matters at all. You have to signify

You cant be too careful on a skateboard.

There are lots of guys out there who write a better prose line than I do and who have a better understanding of what people are really like and what humanity is supposed to mean - hell, I know that.

The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease & intimacy with the process of writing... It also offers you a constantly growing knowledge of what has been done and what hasn't, what is trite and what is fresh, what works and what lies there dying (or dead) on the page. The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor.

Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.