“Polly was a writer of many deadlines. There were the ignorable deadlines, the not-to-be-taken-too-seriously deadlines: the deadlines-before-the-deadlines deadlines, and finally, the no-kidding-around deadlines. She set these various dates, she'd told him, to fool herself.”

“What does the absolutely final deadline apply to? What book?"If there was one book that did not cry out for a sequel, it was "Death of a Doge". "Don't you remember what an awful time you had writing that book?”

“A deadline gets a writer's work done done better and faster than any inspiration, if only because inspirations don't always come, but the deadline is always there.”

“The deadline is set and they think I am their pet.”

“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline”

“Goals are dreams with a deadline.”

“A goal is a dream with a deadline”