“I grew up in a community where it was not the exception to be a good girl. It was sort of expected. And all of my friends were good girls too, and my boyfriends were good boys. Everybody was pretty nice. And that affects how I write my characters. There aren't very many bad guys in my novels.” WritingCharacterGuyGirlCommunityBoysNovelNiceGrewGrew UpMy FriendsExpectedExceptionBad GuysMy BoyfriendGood GirlGood Boy Author:Stephenie Meyer
“Oh, my God. What if you wake up some day, and you're 65 or 75, and you never got your novel or memoir written; or you didn't go swimming in warm pools or oceans because your thighs were jiggly or you had a nice big comfortable tummy; or you were just so strung out on perfectionism and people-pleasing that you forgot to have a big juicy creative life, of imagination and radical silliness and staring off into space like when you were a kid? It's going to break your heart. Don't let this happen.” PeopleIfsHeartBigsHappensKidsImaginationSpaceBreakNovelCreativeNiceWrittenOceanComfortableWake UpWarmMemoirRadicalStaringWhat IfSwimmingPoolPerfectionismThighsBreak Your HeartJuicyCreative LifeSillinessPleasing PeopleStaring Into Space Author:Anne Lamott
“There's something really nice about writing something on Wednesday and watching it being performed live for a studio audience on Tuesday. You never really get that with novels.” WritingNovelAudienceNiceStudiosReally NiceTuesdayWednesday Author:Jennifer Weiner
“What critics might call eclectic, and Eastern folks quirky, we Southerners call cussedness-and it's the cornerstone of the American genius. As in: 'There's a right way, a wrong way, and my way.' You want to see how that looks on the page, pick up any of Craig McDonald's novels. He's built him a nice little shack out there way off all the reg'lar roads, and he's brewing some fine, heady stuff. Leave your money under the rock and come back in an hour.” WayWantLooksLittlesMightStuffHoursNovelNiceRocksFineGeniusPagesPicksBuiltCriticsFolksMy WayRight WayEasternWrong WayMcdonaldsQuirkyCornerstonesEclecticSouthernerBrewingShack Author:James Sallis
“The thing I like so much about short stories is that there isn't as much of an investment of time so I'm free to experiment more. If it doesn't work out, I've only lost a week or two of work. If I screw up a novel I've lost at least a year's worth of work. But the nice thing is that those experiments with short stories can be carried over to novels when the experiments do work.” IfsYearsTwoStoriesLostNovelNiceWeekInvestmentWork OutExperimentsShort StoryScrewsNice ThingsScrew Ups Author:Charles de Lint
“Just in terms of being able to be a professional artist, but also it's nice to not have to dread introductions. "What you do for a living?" It used to be easier just to tell people that I was a magazine illustrator than try to explain that I did comics, but not the kind of comics that they were used to, and no, it's not pornography, etc. And now people even of our parents' generation are familiar with the term "graphic novel," which is kind of amazing.” PeopleTryingKindAbleUsedArtistParentTermNovelNiceGenerationsEasierFamiliarUsed To BeMagazinesEtcDreadPornographyIntroductionGraphicGraphic NovelsIllustrators Author:Adrian Tomine
“I've heard some readers saying they wished the story was longer, and I completely understand that desire - we all like to sink into a nice, long novel.” LongStoriesDesireNovelNiceHeardReader Author:Theodora Goss