“Writing a novel is like traveling the universe on foot.”

“For me, all writing -- storytelling and style -- gets back to the Bible, Twain and Hemingway, and not in that order.”

“Storytelling? God started that. Discovery. Lust. Murder. Revenge. Power. Sin. Redemption. Forgiveness. Miracles. We simply retell the stories in the language of our generation.”

“Another drink, another sentence, and the writing continues on. . . .”

“For some offenses, there is only retribution." Nora Hawks, "One Woman's Vengeance.”

“What fascinates me about writing is wrestling thought into reality and creating a new world that is forever.”

“Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves - that's the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives - experiences so great and moving that it doesn't seem at the time anyone...”

“Five common traits of good writers: (1) They have something to say. (2) They read widely and have done so since childhood. (3) They possess what Isaac Asimov calls a "capacity for clear thought," a...”

“There are lots of guys out there who write a better prose line than I do and who have a better understanding of what people are really like and what humanity is supposed to mean hell, I know that.”

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”