To set a forest on fire, you light a match. To set a character on fire, you put him in conflict.

All good plots come from well-orchestrated characters pitted against one another in a conflict of wills.

It is possible to combine a story line and plot line in the same work. Usually the storylines comes first, serving as a background to the plot line, but not always.

When characters have different goals and are intent on achieving them, conflict results. If the stakes are high and both sides are unyielding, you have the makings of high drama.

You will never work through writer's block if you walk away from your typewriter. That will only make it easier to walk away the next time.

For some it is harder to write a novel than to row a bathtub across the North Atlantic.

The opposing missions of the various characters create the plot.

For some it is harder towrite a novel than to row a bathtub across the North Atlantic.

The point is, every book we had could save us in a different way -- only, we had to open it. We had to drop our eyes to the page and drink in the words that were there.

In the biggest and the smallest I sleep but at the same place I stay.

It’s an act of our will to choose to see people simply as wildly loved by God, to assume their beauty before guessing their depravity.

Better not to plant seeds of selfishness than try to eradicate them once they have grown into giant weeds. (91)

I don't really believe in evil at all.

Truth is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.

I would love to produce a film. I have written a script and am in the process of writing another, so maybe it will happen down the road. I would love to do a film in Africa.

The true Christian loves his Savior with his whole heart and wants nothing to do with the sin that nailed his Redeemer to the cross.

I see something new in 'Gosford Park' every time I watch it.

You are the generation that will reach the sea and hoist the flag of Palestine over Tel Aviv.