All I’ve done is give you a book,” she said. “You have to have the courage to learn what’s inside it.
I had discovered that learning something, no matter how complex, wasn’t hard when I had a reason to want to know it.
You must completely dedicate yourselves to it. To do less will be to let down your country, your state, your parents, your teachers, and ultimately, yourselves. Remember this: The only good citizen is the well-educated citizen.
As I wrote more I became more critical of myself and I think that you have to be your harshest judge. I don’t ever believe that what I write is my best work. I always think that I can hone it. I can always think that I can make it a little bit better.
A rocket won’t fly unless somebody lights the fuse!
Not much comes easy in this world, Sonny. If it does, it’s best to be suspicious of it. It’s probably not worth much.
I would tell people some years later that I was raised an only child and so was my brother.
Becoming a writer can kind of spoil your reading because you kind of read on tracks. You’re reading as someone who wants to enjoy the book but also, as a writer, noticing the techniques that the writer uses and especially the ones that make you want to turn the page to see what happened.
I have never been able to understand anyone on this planet who lacks a need for knowledge. Is it not God’s greatest gift to us all, this capacity to think, to wonder, to imagine?
It is better to confess ignorance than provide it.
Always I try to write about people. People are interested in other people always.
A man can’t hit a woman and stay a man. He becomes a loathsome thing, even to himself. But the woman who stays with such a man panders to his darkness. They both risk their souls.
There are two things every woman really wants: one, she wants to know that a man really loves her, and two, that he isn’t going to stop.
A lot of folks just get it in their head that, for instance, like writing memoirs is just easy. You just write down what happened. It doesn’t quite work that way.
The key to not getting rejected if you’re writing for a magazine, is to know to read that magazine and know everything about them before you ever make a submission.