They Don't Actually Want You To Do

The Possibility That Hope Comes Out Of Hopelessness And That The Opposite Of Things Carry The Seeds Of Birth - Love Out Of Hate, Good Out Of Evil. Didn't Flowers Grow Out Of Dirt?

He Was Intrigued By The Power Of Words, Not The Literary Words That Filled The Books In The Library But The Sharp, Staccato Words That Went Into The Writing Of News Stories. Words That Went For The Jugular. Active Verbs That Danced And Raced On The Page.

Salinger Is Such A Terrific Writer; He Did So Many Great Things. He Is One Of Those Writers That I Still Reread, Simply Because He Makes Me See The Possibilities And Makes Me Feel Like Writing. There Are Certain Writers Who Put You In The Mood To Write. In The Way A Whiff Of A Cigar Will Bring Back Memories Of A Ballgame On A Saturday Afternoon, Reading Salinger Makes Me Want To Get To The Typewriter.

When You Get The Ideas, That's A Thrill; When You're Writing The Book And It's Corning Out Well, That's A Thrill; When You Finish It And Other People Read It, That's A Thrill. There Are Going To Be Reviews, Of Course; Not Everyone's Going To Love It. You Feel Sort Of Naked And Vulnerable In A Way. That's Just A Minor Part Of The Process, Really. If You Can't Take That Part, You Shouldn't Be In The Business. But There Are So Many Joys To Writing.

When I Write, I Never Think Of Segments As Chapters; I Think Of Them As Scenes. I Always Visualize Them In My Mind. Then I Try To Get The Scene Down On Paper As Closely As I Can. That's The One Thing That Readers Don't See - What You Have In Your Mind. The Reader Can Only See What You Get On The Page.