"This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company incl…"

"One rule of the road not directly stated elsewhere in this book: "The editor is always right." The corollary is that …"

"Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bests…"

"Don't bother trying to read between the lines, and don't look for a through-line. There are no lines--only snapshots,…"

"When you write a story, you're telling yourself the story...When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the thi…"

"I don't want to speak too disparagingly of my generation (actually I do, we had a chance to change the world and opte…"

"I was born in 1947 and we didn't get our first television until 1958."

"The idea that the creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual my…"

"Horror movies, science fiction movies, movies about teenage gangs on the prowl, movies about losers on motorcycles--t…"

"Four stories. A quarter apiece. That was the first buck I made in this business."