Anyone living in Los Angeles who has opposable thumbs is required to write a screenplay.

In fact, one could argue that the skill of the fiction writer boils down to the ability to exploit intensity.

Structure is translation software for your imagination.

Every hour you spend writing is an hour you don't spend worrying about your writing.

Status, worry and comparison are ways to madness, not victory.

Superb historical romance, with a spiritual theme woven seamlessly throughout. I much enjoyed The Covered Deep and look forward to more from its author!

Think of it as the Doorway of No Return. The feeling must be that your lead character, once she passes through, cannot go home again until the major problem of the plot is solved.

Write like you're in love. Edit like you're in charge.

A writing teacher once told me that the most successful movies and books were simple plots about complex characters. You should be able to articulate your concept in a couple of lines.

There's a perilous word fiction writers need to watch out for. The word is 'had.'

The semi-colon is a burp, a hiccup. It's a drunk staggering out of the saloon at 2 a.m., grabbing your lapels on the way and asking you to listen to one more story.

Women marry men hoping they will change. They don't. Men marry women hoping they won't change. They do.

It was true. Men could be with whomever they pleased. But women had to date better, kinder, richer, and bright, bright, bright, or else people got embarrassed.

One must stop conducting research before one has finished. Otherwise, one will never stop and never finish.

A consumer is not a moron. She's your wife. Don't insult her intelligence, and don't shock her.

All you ever really want is a great character and great writing. As an actor, that's the juiciest sandwich you could ever ask for.

Macbeth is contending with the realities of this world, Hamlet with those of the next.

We reject the way the world is at the moment and we don't accept nuclear weapons

The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare.

There are some people who only know me for cornflakes ads, and that's fine. I have a charmed life.

Time and tide wait for no man, but time always stands still for a woman of 30.