When state and religion are one, religion becomes a means for the powerful to remain in power.
If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.
I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.
Now I have to motivate myself much more than I had previously.
Being a writer was never a choice, it was an irresistible compulsion.
Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part.