I am a shining star, and I surround myself with people who encourage my brightness.
The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.
What's called a difficult decision is a difficult decision because either way you go there are penalties.
The real challenge is not simply to survive. Hell, anyone can do that. It’s to survive as yourself, undiminished.
I've come to believe that everything worth achieving is beyond one's capacity - or seems so at first. The thing is to persist, not back off, fight your fight, pay your dues, and carry on. Effort is all; continue and you may get there despite everything.
Look for the contradictions in every character, especially in your heroes and villains. No one should be what they first seem to be. Surprise the audience.
Wonder is our need today, not information.
If you look at Detroit, that mayor, it's been a train wreck for 40 years, the population has gone from 2 million to 700,000. This Mayor comes in, and he talked about streetlights, sanitation, jobs, policing, schools, affordable housing. He's doing it all, and it's growing for the first time in 30 years. Literally, one man. But that one man couldn't do it without business. And business couldn't have done it without a political environment where they wanted to improve things. If you had an antibusiness environment there, it would still be down there.
But the mind travels far - and mysteriously - in sleep.
Books are precious things, but more than that, they are the strong backbone of civilization. They are the thread upon which it all hangs, and they can save us when all else is lost.
I've missed you, Ella May