“Poetry is eternal graffiti written in the heart of everyone.” ~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti
“The first Chapter Law is, “Don’t spend much time on it. You’re going to have to rewrite it.”
~ Tony Hillerman
“Just go outside and look at something and write it down and you’ll find it is a very nice piece of writing.” ~ John Sanford
“Writer’s block? I’ve never heard of a plumber complain about plumber’s block.” ~ Robert B. Parker
“The best crime novels are not about how a detective works on a case; they are about how a case works on a detective.” ~ Michael Connelly
“There are a couple of writers I admired who were very good at giving the character’s emotion without stating what that emotion was. Not saying “He was feeling tense,” instead saying, “His hand squeezed harder on the chair arm,” as if staying outside the guy. I wanted to try doing that. I wanted to have a really emotional story in which the characters’ emotions are never straight – out told to you, but you get it.” ~ Donald Westlake
“I’m one of the narrative-push people. I don’t outline, I don’t plan ahead. So I’m my first reader, telling myself the story as I’m going along. Since I haven’t designed it ahead of time, each day I have to be sure that the footing is solid before I make the next step. I think you could be more intricate if you work it out ahead of time.” ~ Donald Westlake
“It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the myth-maker, that is our phoenix, that represents us at our best, and at our most creative.” ~ Doris Lessing
“A major writer combines these three – storyteller, teacher, enchanter – but it is the enchanter in him that predominates and makes him a major writer.” ~ Vladimir Nabokov
We writers, as we work our way deeper into our craft, learn to drop more and more personal clues. Like burglars who secretly wish to be caught, we leave our fingerprints on broken locks, our voiceprints in bugged rooms, our footprints in the wet concrete. ~ Ross Macdonald
