Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

Every paragraph should accomplish two goals: advance the story, and develop your characters as complex human beings.

Fiction is about stuff that's screwed up.

What characters do must grow out of who they are, and who they are is, in turn, influenced by what you make happen to them.

Characterization is not divorced from plot, not a coat of paint you slap on after the structure of events is already built. Rather characterization is inseparable from plot.

There are two wrong reactions to a rejection slip: deciding it's a final judgment on your story and/or talent, and deciding it's no judgment on your story and/or talent.

In commercial fiction especially, everything in the story usually contributes directly to the plot The shorter the story, the truer this is

You think intelligence and grit can succeed by themselves, but I'm telling you that's a pretty illusion.

You must learn to be three people at once: writer, character, and reader.

Technology is Darwinian. It spreads. It evolves. It adapts. The most dangerous wipes out the less fit.

Religious reverence for one's own job, even if the job is worth doing, is a sexual turnoff.

My NFL pension can barely pay my son's tuition. You know, it's very little money.

To me, the Holocaust stands alone as the most horrible human event in modern civilization.

There are always some areas world history does not reach, zones of silence and undisturbed ignorance.

The best antidote to worry, I have always believed, is work and more work.

Tomorrow we may come this way, And take the hidden paths that run Towards the Moon or to the Sun

Influence is not the same as authority. Authority can be abused by influence gives.

Culture is an indispensable weapon in the freedom struggle.

On Chris Evert: Before I even met her, she stood for everything I admired in this country: poise, ability, sportsmanship, money, style.

Inspirational and will challenge readers to get involved in the lives of others to make a difference. Thank you for sharing your wonderful insight and encouragement.

Military pay has been allowed to lag behind to the point where career enlisted men with families to feed have been forced to resort to food stamps.