One of the greatest contributors to our sense of self-worth is how useful we are in the situations in which we find ourselves.

Numerous studies have shown that hope has a greater impact on happiness than standard of living.

Hiking is like writing fiction. Once you agree with me on this point, your writing will improve. So will your hiking.

Your fans want to know that you know what you’re doing.

Isn’t it true that many Hollywood movies lately are remakes, sequels, or based on fifty-year-old comic books?

I read somewhere that "a good short story with one extra word is a bad short story."

With a bit of skewed math, we can squeeze a decent novella out of one thousand sentences.

Your uncertainty will grow faster than your increase in knowledge.

I have played a game for years that has helped transform my writing from banal lethargy to transcendent elegance.

Most people feel queasy when standing close to the edge of a tall cliff. This is a good thing.

In my youth, no advice was more infuriating and demeaning to me than the three-word lecture, "Just be yourself."

By the time I was taking second-semester calculus in college I was sick of reducing fractions.

In polite company, when people say, “Avoid doing such-and-such,” what they really mean is, “Never do that or you’re wretched filth.”

I reached for the closest glass and poured into my mouth a volume of the white fluid large enough to fill my cheeks.

Are there times when adversity around you is so incomprehensible you wonder if it is you who has everything wrong?

Recall the adage, the customer is always right?

No one except novelists knows what it’s like to write a novel.

When your readers come across the first keystroke of your story, they are infants presented to a new world.

If you asked fifty people if a story about monsters eating people's faces is science fiction, you will receive fifty yesses.

If you have already graduated from high school, then I’m truly sorry because it is too late for you.