la buena literatura podía ser embriagadora sin renunciar al hilo conductor de las ideas.

There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas come quite literally out of nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: to previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't too find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.

When certain seeds are planted, they nearly always grow.

The idea that America exists in a culture of violence is bullshit. What America exists in is a culture of Kardashian.

It's the pool where we all go down to drink, to swim, to catch a little fish from the edge of the shore; it's also the pool where some hardy souls go out in their flimsy wooden boats after the big ones. It is the pool of life, the cup of imagination, and she has an idea that different people see different versions of it, but with two things ever in common: it's always about a mile deep in the Fairy Forest, and it's always sad. Because imagination isn't the only thing this place is about.

It's a mystery. That's the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it's mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

...stopping a piece of work just because it's hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea. Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when if feels like all you're managing is to shovel sh*t from a sitting position.

An idea is like a cold germ: sooner or later someone always catches it.

I don't like the idea that I am going to come back as an ant or a sparrow if I don't get along in the great karma of life.