Death, but not for you, gunslinger. Never for you. You darkle. You tinct. May I be brutally frank? You go on.

If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

When a good writer is having fun, the audience is almost always having fun too.

You know what talent is? The curse of expectation. As a kid you have to deal with that, beat it somehow. If you can write, you think God put you on earth to blow Shakespeare away. Or if you can paint, maybe you think--I did--that God put you on earth to blow your father away.

He supposed that even in Hell, people got an occasional sip of water, if only so they could appreciate the full horror of unrequited thirst when it set in again.

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

When the reader hears strong echoes of his or her own life and beliefs, he or she is apt to become more invested in the story.