"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 wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes...you're Doing Something."
"Normally, in anything I do, I'm fairly miserable. I do it, and I get grumpy because there is a huge, vast gulf, this aching disparity, between the platonic ideal of the project that was living in my head, and the small, sad, wizened, shaking, squeaking thing that I actually produce."
"Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost."
"Set your fantasies in the here and now and then, if challenged, claim to be writing Magical Realism."
"I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You're doing things you've never done before, and more importantly, you're doing something."