So you need to deliver a speech, let’s say 20 minutes long, to salespeople. You’ve got a new product ready to push out to Read More...
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.
It is only natural to pattern yourself after someone. But you can’t just copy someone. If you like someone’s work, the important thing is to be exposed to everything that person has been exposed to.
Anecdotes don’t make good stories. Generally, I dig down underneath them so far that the story that finally comes out is not what people thought their anecdotes were about.
You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.
No writer has ever yet been known to hang himself as long as he had another chapter left.
Socially, a journalist fits in somewhere between a whore and a bartender. But spiritually he stands beside Galileo. He knows the world is round.
The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
To me, movies and music go hand in hand. When I’m writing a script, one of the first things I do is find the music I’m going to play for the opening sequence.

























