top of page
More

"You spill a lot of beans in historical fiction. Crime fiction is about spilling no beans at all. You spill the least beans you possibly can. So because I had already written historical fiction before I was really good at the spilling beans section, but the new skill I had to learn when I was writing Brighton Belle was difficult. I had to avoid the equivalent of shouting, "this character's a murderer! Look who did it!."
Author Name
Personal Development

"Don't say it was delightful; make us say delightful when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers Please will you do the job for me."
Author Name
Personal Development

"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."
Author Name
Personal Development

"We write, edit, and rewrite the story of our own life employing descriptive words, metaphors, and symbols. Our lives are full of symbols including those supplied by nature and religion, which touch upon the mystical and spiritual aspects of life. Symbols inspire enduring hope by formulating idealist expectations."
Author Name
Personal Development

"I'm a fairly undisciplined writer."
Author Name
Personal Development

"Writers aren't exactly people, they're a bunch of people trying to be one person."
Author Name
Personal Development

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
Author Name
Personal Development

"Pour your heart onto the page."
Author Name
Personal Development

"You like to write. It's the single most important quality for someone who wants to be a writer. But not in itself enough."
Author Name
Personal Development

"One of my rules is never explain. A writer is a lot like a magician, if you explain how the trick works then a lot of the magic turns mundane."
Author Name
Personal Development
More

"Man, who is he? Too bad, to be the work of God: Too good for the work of chance!"
Work

"In university they don't tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools."
Fool

"Pearls mean tears."
Symbolism

"The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion."
Change

"A simple grateful thought turned heavenwards is the most perfect prayer."
Thought

"In the writing process, the more a story cooks, the better."
Writing

"That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way."
Life

"It is terrible to destroy a person's picture of himself in the interests of truth or some other abstraction."
Truth

"Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so."
Opportunity

"There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be."
Law
bottom of page