Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My singing ability is zilch.
Silence creates it's own violence.
My parents were in the Peace Corps.
What occurs after revelation and paralysis?
I'm not a fan of fiction that's totally hopeless.
My mom is an artist and my own fiction is deeply visual.
I'm a huge fan of science fiction, horror, and fantasy films.
I believe the best creative writing lessons live in the specifics.
My stepmom is one of the leading researchers on lupus in the world.
Some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.
I’ve got...ways of tricking my brain into getting what I need out of it
You could know the what of something forever and never discover the why.
I like North Florida because it's much wilder than the rest of the state.
You can be deeply non-serious and still focused, disciplined, and on task.
I had learned so much about the world that I had decided to withdraw from it.
I'm fairly skeptical of movements, organizations, and institutions in general.
Trust your imagination. Don't be afraid to fail. Write. Revise. Revise. Revise.
My mom was a biological illustrator for a time before computers replaced that job.
If I could play an instrument, it would probably be a cello or an electric guitar.
History has shown us all too often the consequences of dreaming poorly or not at all.
There are some beautiful creatures in the ocean that seem very alien at the same time.
If I wasn't a writer, I don't know what I'd be. Probably a marine biologist or something.
But what if you discover that the price of purpose is to render invisible so many other things?
Who had the bigger burden? The one who had to watch the other person endure or the one who endured?
There simply aren't enough constitutional safeguards in place to protect against a rogue president.
So many differing opinions and philosophies... are rarely housed under the roof of a single magazine.
There's also a lot of gritty Americana type of bands. I actually have a lot of Britpop on my iPod, too.
I'm an agnostic trending toward atheist and resist, in particular, Christian interpretations and imagery.
Literary influences are harder for me to point to, because mostly it's a mulch of all of my past reading.
You can either waste time worrying about a death that might not come or concentrate on what’s left to you.
I do believe very much in the idea of unexpected or 'convulsive' beauty - beauty in the service of liberty.
I do believe very much in the idea of unexpected or "convulsive" beauty - beauty in the service of liberty.
My mother is an artist, and I have a strong visual sense. I almost always choose the cover art for my books.
That's how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality.
I have to have music as a soundtrack to writing fiction. I listen to it at other times, too, but it helps me write.
Even a dream as inspiration doesn't mean anything unless you then find that it's sparked an actual story with a plot.
I always try to be alert to the potential for repetition, for a decaying orbit with regard to my use of technique, etc.
When we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we’ve taken as reality.
My dad is an entomologist and research chemist. That's why he was in Fiji, studying the rhinoceros beetle invasive species.
The music I listen to while writing is really scene-specific. It's just a great motivator, a way to put myself in the mood.
In a sense, fictional dystopias have been a way of distracting us from the truth of our condition by placing it 'over there.'
South Florida, Central Florida, and North Florida could never be mistaken for each other. Each has its quirks and attractions.
The one thing I always come back to as a writer, what I consider my bedrock, is a lot of charged images that appear in the text.
If the reader enters a kind of immersive experience reading a book, then I have to enter a kind of immersive state to do my best work.
Film fixes a precise visual image in the viewer's head. In fiction, you just hope you're precise enough to convey the intended effect.
I see music as an aid. It overcomes my internal editor, especially when the music evokes the character or the mood I'm trying to build.
The map had been the first form of misdirection, for what is a map but a way of emphasizing some things and making other things invisible?
I've always wrestled with the difference between plot and structure, and after re-reading a lot of writing books I realized I wasn't alone.
When they give you things, ask yourself why. When you're grateful to them for giving you the things you should have anyway, ask yourself why.
I also am not particularly risk-averse - I don't mind jumping off a cliff if I trust the people who've told me they'll catch me at the bottom.