"

You wanna be the next Tolkien? Don't read big, tolkien-esque fantasies. TOLKIEN didn't read big, tolkien-esque fantasies. He read books on finnish phi...more

"

Start telling the stories that only you can tell, because there’ll always be better writers than you and there’ll always be smarter writers than you. ...more

"

My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each...more

"

I don't think immediate tragedy is a very good source of art. It can be, but too often it's raw and painful and un-dealt-with. Sometimes art can be a ...more

"

So that's my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody's ever made...more

"

The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for li...more

"

Whatever it takes to finish things, finish. You will learn more from a glorious failure than you ever will from something you never finished.

"

But the truth is, it's not the idea, it's never the idea, it's always what you do with it.")

"

And I thought, eight years ago, when I began carefully charting the progress of American Gods, nervously dipping my toes into the waters of blogging, ...more

"

Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.

"

All writers have this vague hope that the elves will come in the night and finish any stories.

"

The best thing about writing fiction is that moment where the story catches fire and comes to life on the page, and suddenly it all makes sense and yo...more

"

I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work. Which meant that life did not feel like work.

"

The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and danc...more

"

Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is...more