In fantasy, impossible things exist. In science fiction, impossible things exist and can be understood by humans. In supernatural horror, impossible things exist and cannot live in peace with humans.

Moving around is good for creativity: the next line of dialogue that you desperately need may well be waiting in the back of the refrigerator or half a mile along your favorite walk.

There are no rules in writing. There are useful principles. Throw them away when they're not useful. But always know what you're throwing away.

It is better to write a bad first draft than to write no first draft at all.

Politics is a dirty business, but if you do not do politics, politics will be done to you.

The great thing about revision is that it's your opportunity to fake being brilliant.

It's always good to hear that people you like are happy.

Unless you're writing for a humorous effect, elves or space aliens and all creatures who aren't human should at least be as strange as, oh, the French.

Women, on the other hand, had to wield their intellects like a scythe, hacking away against the stubborn underbrush of low expectations.

They turned their desks into a trigonometric war room, poring over equations scrawling ideas on blackboards, evaluating their work, erasing it, starting over.

For twelve school years, every morning, she had turned left out the front door to get to work. Now the taxi turned right, spiriting her off in the opposite direction.

I'm going to be a person who writes stories.I never told mom and dad how much I loved them.I wanna be someone who can tell a lot of people how much I love them.

There are white n*ggers. I've seen a lot of white n*ggers in my time.

The strengthening of faith, I think, is the ultimate goal of organized religion altogether.

Stories are at the very heart of being human; they talk about where we're from, where we are, and where we're going. They're like bread; you need to hear and tell them everyday.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people!

Generally it is our failures that civilize us. Triumph confirms us in our habits.

Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.

Galleries needn't be exactly like White Columns purely because times are bad again. But the idea of this special space could - should - help shape what comes next.

One thing that I would like to do that I've seen them not do that well is take women all through the process of the postpartum period in a more meaningful way. That would be my agenda.

An architect does not need to spend his whole career making monuments for rich people.