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"I think if the writing comes too easily, it shows - it's usually hard to read."
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"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!."
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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."
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Personal Development
"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."
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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."
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Personal Development
"I'm a fairly undisciplined writer."
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Personal Development
"Writers aren't exactly people, they're a bunch of people trying to be one person."
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Personal Development
"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
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Personal Development
"Pour your heart onto the page."
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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."
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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."
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"I know that to write you have to have stories you want to tell. You have to keep your mind alive, and you have to work hard."
Work
"You do the right thing even if it makes you feel bad. The purpose of life is not to be happy but to be worthy of happiness."
Happiness
"If you had an essentially happy childhood, that tends to dwell with you."
Family
"I usually write about ordinary people and ordinary things, but Paul Farmer is the least ordinary person I've ever met... He's the leader of a small group of people who hope to cure a sick world, and I hope my book can help in some small way."
Leadership
"I always want to write something better than the last book."
Want
"I tell beginning readers to read a lot and write a lot. If you want to write a book, find a subject that's really worth the time and effort you'll put in."
Time
"Continuity is one of the things I like about New England."
Writing
"What interests me is trying to catch the reflection of the human being on the page. I'm interested in how ordinary people live their lives."
People
"People say you can't teach writing, but I think that's nonsense."
People
"I wrote a novel about the combat experiences I didn't have in Vietnam."
Writing
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