We like to think about how smart we are. But I think talent as a writer is hard-wired in, it's all there, at least the basic elements of it. You can't change it any more than you can choose whether to be right handed or left handed.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Superstition, like true love, needs time to grow and reflect upon itself.

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.

I'm going to be dead for a long time, so I have a lot to do now.

Discipline and constant work are the whetstones upon which the dull knife of talent is honed until it becomes sharp enough, hopefully, to cut through even the toughest meat and gristle.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it's going to happen.