Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt.

This is the other secret that real artists know and wannabe writers don’t. When we sit down each day and do our work, power concentrates around us. The Muse takes note of our dedication. She approves. We have earned favor in her sight. When we sit down and work, we become like a magnetized rod that attracts iron filings. Ideas come. Insights accrete.

The athlete knows the day will never come when he wakes up pain-free. He has to play hurt.

Don't cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you've got.

Reading is alive and well and will get more alive and more well. Reading on tablets (or whatever the next tech device will be) is the future - and the future is now.

Picasso painted with passion, Mozart composed with it. A child plays with it all day long. You may think you’ve lost your passion, or that you can’t identify it, or that you have so much of it, it threatens to overwhelm you. None of these is true.

Writers think in metaphors. Editors work in metaphors. A great reader reads in metaphors.