“[I]t's the child writer who has figured out, early on, that writing is about saving your soul.”

“The world doesn't fully make sense until the writer has secured his version of it on the page. And the act of writing is strangely more lifelike than life.”

“But I also believe there is enormous value in the piece of writing that goes no further than the one person for whom it was intended, that no combination of written words is more eloquent than thos...”

“No matter how many compromises were made along the way, no matter what happens in the future, a book is a thing to behold.”

“When an editor works with an author, she cannot help seeing into the medicine cabinet of his soul. All the terrible emotions, the desire for vindications, the paranoia, and the projection are bottl...”

“...but every person who does serious time with a keyboard is attempting to translate his version of the world into words so that he might be understood.”

“Only Southerners have taken horsewhips and pistols to editors about the treatment or maltreatment of their manuscript. This--the actual pistols--was in the old days, of course, we no longer succumb...”

“Every writer, of course, has very specific ideas about editors. But writers seldom get the last word on anything.”

“Just because it's fiction doesn't mean it's any less true.”

“Oh, Sweetie. No one ever gets through their TBR list. For every book you finish, you'll add five more. That's just the way it works.”

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”