Traveling has less to do with seeing things than experiencing them...
All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story.
What I try to do with any of my stories, any of my novels, is make them feel very original.
But most of all, I learned that it’s possible for two people to fall in love all over again, even when there’s been a lifetime of disappointment between them.
It’s funny that you can know someone for years, but still discover something you never noticed before.
I’m a novelist at heart. How’s that? And that’s how I make my living, is I write novels.
I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him.
In the end, for me, the sole single goal is to write the best novel that I can. Whether or not it gets made or gets purchased.
Things changed, people changed, and the world went rolling along right outside the window.
If you have no conflict, you have no story. That’s number one. That’s a rule of novels.
Over time, quality work will lead to an audience for your work.
Whenever I work on a film, I have three rules. Only three and I tell them to every screenwriter. I say let’s retain the spirit and the intent of the overall story. Let’s make it the best film that we possibly can.
In the end, you really want to make the best film that you can, and in the reality of the filmmaking world, you have things like budgets.
I knew it wasn’t fair, I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help it. And after a while, the anger I felt just sort of became part of me, like it was the only way I knew how to handle the grief. I didn’t like who I’d become, but I was stuck in this horrible cycle of questions and blame.
Novels are very different than films and I love to see someone else’s imagining of my story.
You have to find actors who have the ability to display a wide range of emotion effectively. That’s so much harder than it seems.
When you know that someone close to you is going to die, there’s a natural tendency to want to spend as much time with them as you can.
Like many people who live in the South, I’m drawn to the history of the Civil War.
That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered.
I don’t want to be on the phone talking numbers and budget. I want to be creating a world.