We're living in extraordinary times, all the time. The issues that assail us are perennial. They haven't changed since the Greeks picked up a pen.
Be more ambitious. Do your homework. There's no easy way around this.
Since my student days, I'd been a fan of those books with titles like 'Great Speeches that Changed the World,' as I loved the idea that the right person with the right words at the right time could really make a difference.
I often find that writers who disavow the importance of an ending are just not very good at endings.
It's impossible to make a living in the arts unless you make a fortune. There's almost no in-between. Writers are either broke or rolling in it. Oddly, you can't tell them apart.
No murder or sin or act of barbarism or cruelty has ever been committed by a person fully absorbed in the reading of a book. By this fact alone, we can conclude that readers are nicer people, at least until they put the book down. When we are reading, we are better.
When I was growing up in the '80s and working in the theater, David Mamet exploded with a whole new reworking of what dialogue should sound like. It was punchy and raw and repetitive, bursting with dynamic. I remember that switching on a lot of lights for me.
Commercial success and quality are not necessarily allied.
I was born to a very large family, one of 7 kids. I grew up with carnivals and chaos all around me, so I can write anywhere.
You can't write a character more brilliant than yourself. It's just not physically possible.
Most writers live in self-imposed exile, even when they don't leave their country. They prefer the undiscovered country inside their own heads.
As you get older, you become more vain. But as your looks slowly deteriorate, your eyesight worsens, so it all balances out.
I have three favorite cities: London, Wellington, and Los Angeles. What makes them so good? The friends who live there.
Truth is seldom appreciated and never understood, whereas a flattering lie is always appreciated and instantly understood.
My routine is to create activities for myself unrelated to writing that allow little time for writing. This means that when I do get the chance to write, it is like a stolen luxury, something clandestine and almost forbidden.
Reading is essential to human life. When the last reader dies, humanity will be at an end.
At 17, I wanted to be a rock star.
The New Zealand sense of humor is tough and realistic. Jokes are not surreal; they are about life and death and tough decisions.
If we did not have the impulse and ability to believe in the impossible, we would not have religion, democracy, or marriage.
I am so superstitious that I think even discussing this subject is dangerous and will probably bring me terrible luck. Having been raised a Catholic, superstition becomes almost part of your DNA. The challenge is to slowly rid yourself of these little delusions.
