All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.

I almost always urge people to write in the first person. ... Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it.

Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation. Be yourself when you write. If you're not a person who says 'indeed' or 'moreover,' or who calls someone an individual ('he's a fine individual'), please don't write it.

Dare to tell the smallest of stories if you want to generate large emotions.

Eloquence invites us to bring some part of ourselves to the transaction.

No one has something original or important to say will willing we run the risk of being misunderstood; people who write obscurely are either unskilled in writing or up to mischief

Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does - in his own words. His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land.