“Every story starts with an idea, but it is the characters that move this idea forward.”

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”

“Sometimes you have an idea and just have to move forward with it.”

“Remember that you don't write a story because you have an idea but because you have a believable character.”

“You are saying, are you not, I said to Manuelito, that stories have more room in them than ideas? [...] He laughed. That is correct, Señor. It is as if ideas are made of blocks. Rigid and hard. And stories are made of a gauze that is elastic. You can almost see through it, so what is beyond is tantalizing. You can't quite make it out; and because the imagination is always moving forward, you yourself are constantly stretching. Stories are the way spirit is exercised.”

“Of all the principles I'd learn about story, the idea that a character is what he does remains the hardest to actually live.”