I can't see the future, but it's grim. The depletion of resources - we're living in this dine-and-dash economy.

Everything in moderation. And that includes a couple of beers a day.

Remember that the truth is in the details. No matter how you see the world or what style it imposes on your work as an artist, the truth is in the details. Of course the devil's there, too-everyone says so-but maybe truth and the devil are words for the same thing. It could be you know.

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

There’s always someone who knows something.

If I can get it down on paper without puking all over the word processor, then as far as I'm concerned, it's fit to see the light of day.

In a brilliant fusion of fact and fiction, Jayne Anne Phillips has written the novel of the year. It's the story of a serial killer's crimes and capture, yes, but it's also a compulsively readable story of how one brave woman faces up to acts of terrible violence in order to create something good and strong in the aftermath. Quiet Dell will be compared to In Cold Blood, but Phillips offers something Capote could not: a heroine who lights up the dark places and gives us hope in our humanity.