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

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.

Conflict is the place where character and plot intersect.

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

Integrity is critical to our lives - and to our dreams of achievement. We must remember that without integrity, nothing else matters and that with integrity, nothing else matters.

It's not that I'm stupid. I just don't think sometimes.

The No. 20 (Matt Kenseth) broke the pace car speed, which you aren't supposed to, but, they aren't calling guys on that so I need to start trying that in the future.

Clothing should be like food. There should never be a $5000 sweater. You know what should cost $5000? A car.

May we awaken from forgetfulness and realize our true home.

My soul found ease and rest in the companionship of books.

I went to Vortex and Vortex is a whole 'nother story.

Such is the vastness of his genius that he can outwit even himself.

The American worker is more productive than he's ever been.