Cruising the Internet doesn't count as writing. Neither does answering e-mail. Before you check Twitter & FB and do other similar tasks that get in the way of writing, write first. (I really need to take my own advice here!)

Look, as my mama always said, 'One monkey don't stop no show.

I can't stand that - those women in 'Waiting to Exhale' now. I can't stand them. But that's because I'm 53 and not 33. But what they were experiencing at 33, I identified with it.

It's not that marriage itself is bad; it's the people we marry who give it a bad name.

Why is it that if you happen to be black and over six feet tall, everybody thinks you supposed to play basketball or football?

Don't worry about how pretty (the story) sounds, how lilting it is, and the imagery, and the metaphor, all that. Most readers don't care. It's the people in your book that matter.

If you jump to conclusions, you make terrible landings.