I started writing about the Florida Legislature, and there are two possibilities for response to the Florida Legislature. One is weeping uncontrollably and jumping off a tall building, and the other is to laugh. So you might as well laugh.

A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.

You can fix anything but a blank page.

Good fiction creates its own reality.

I praised him for writing the memo with the phrase 'may,' because certified teachers ... do not have to clean.

I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank page.