“Interest is never enough. If it doesn't haunt you, you'll never write it well. What haunts and obsesses you may, with luck and labour, interest your readers. What merely interests you is sure to bore them. (from Workbook)”

“Let failure be your workshop. See it for what is is: the world walking you through a tough but necessary semester, free of tuition. (from Workbook)”

“To listen to critics, pro or con, and take their words to heart is to subcontract your self-esteem to strangers. (from Workbook)”

“Cast a spell and the small flaws don't matter. (From Workbook)”

“Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words.”

“Love . . . requires that you learn to read the lover in her own language, not translate her into yours.”

“The idiot willingness to choose sides is what feeds the abattoir of history.”