Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.

When we want mood experiences, we go to concerts or museums. When we want meaningful emotional experience, we go to the storyteller.

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

Secure writers don't sell first drafts. They patiently rewrite until the script is as director-ready, as actor-ready as possible. Unfinished work invites tampering, while polished, mature work seals its integrity.

True character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure - the greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character's essential nature.