“What you're trying to do when you write is to crowd the reader out of his own space and occupy it with yours, in a good cause. You're trying to take over his sensibility and deliver an experience that moves from mere information.”

“When you're writing you're trying to find out something which you don't know.”

“God, you're broken," she said. "God, you're sick."His gaze fell to his plaid blanket."You tore apart your puppet, didn't you?" said Alice. "And then you tried to fix it."His eyes searched hers."You don't take good care of your toys, God," Alice said. "So I'm going to have to take the puppet away from you.”

“Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”

“If you work closely with your users, sharing their expectations and communicating what you're doing, then there will be few surprises when the project gets delivered. This is a BAD THING. Try to surprise your users. Not scare them, mind you, but /delight/ them.”

“You don't write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you're really doing it, that's all you're doing: writing.”