It is the tale, not he who tells it.

There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good stories seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky.

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

As a species we're fundamentally insane.

I still believe in the resilience of the human heart and the essential validity of love;I still believe that connections between people can be made and that the spirits which inhabit us sometimes touch. I still believe that the cost of these connections is horribly, outrageously high... and I still believe that the value received far outweighs the price which must be paid. (From introductory notes.)

...my basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves.

Your Plan and the stuff that comes out of my asshole bear a suspicious resemblance to each other.