The greatest sin for a writer is to be boring.

There is no writer's block in a newsroom. There's only unemployment block.

My escape is to just get in a boat and disappear on the water.

Actually it was the mark of the stupid, which is what you get for sitting under a tree during a thunderstorm.

The classroom fell quiet, a long heavy silence that roared in Roy's ears like a train.

When I'm deciding to read a book, I never open to the first chapter, because that's been revised and worked over 88 times. I'll just turn to the middle of the book, to the middle of a chapter, and just read a random page and I'll know right away whether this is the real deal or not.