An idea for a story can be anything. The sky is not the limit, the limit is beyond it.
A good writer reveals beauty in the mundane and truth in tragedy. Words are a tool; a currency of the mind, and the best writers weave passages into our hearts that our bones remember.
For the writer, the process of writing a novel is like getting an advanced copy of a book you'd really like to read.
The art of writing is the manipulation of words to ease the mind and free the imagination
Always remember that writing is an alliance between author and reader. With every line we put down on the page, we need to leave room for the reader's imagination and intellect.
Every artist needs canvass, mine just happens to be Microsoft Word and a Thesaurus.
It is sometimes the minor, not the major, characters in a novel who hold the author's affection longest. It may be that one loses affection for the major characters because they suck off so much energ...
It can be said that one slip of point of view by a writer can hurt a story badly, and several slips can be fatal.' Stein on Writing
A successful story always offers its audience more than a simple resolution of events. A story offers a dramatic affirmation of human needs that are acted out to resolution and fulfillment. Even when...
Good or bad, words have an impact on each of us. As a writer, I can only hope that the effects my words have on others are more often good than bad.
You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to fo...
The business of the novelist is not to relate great events, but to make small ones interesting.
Dig deep and go where the pain and fear and joy are, and put it out there. The minute you shy away from pure honesty in your writing, you become a liar.
I owe all my originality, such as it is, to my determination not to be a literary man. Instead of belonging to a literary club I belong to a municipal council. Instead of drinking and discussing autho...
Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.
Each letter has a shape, she told them, one shape in the world and no other, and it is your responsibility to make it perfect.
During 30 years of earning my daily bread as a writer I have learned many lessons about our craft. The most significant of those lessons is that I still have many lessons to learn about out craft.
I just write whenever I can.
A dear and long-time friend,... asked me, "Jack, how long does it usually take you to write a book?" I replied, "Of course it depends on the project and its requirements, each book has its own rules....
All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully an...