“Stories are the collective wisdom of everyone who has ever lived. Your job as a storyteller is not simply to entertain. Nor is it to be noticed for the way you turn a phrase. You have a very important job--one of the most important. Your job is to let people know that everyone shares their feelings--and that these feelings bind us. Your job is a healing art, and like all healers, you have a responsibility. Let people know they are not alone. You must make people understand that we are all the same.”
― The Golden Theme: How to Make Your Writing Appeal to the Highest Common Denominator
― The Golden Theme: How to Make Your Writing Appeal to the Highest Common Denominator
“Have you ever pondered the miracle of popcorn? It starts out as a tiny, little, compact kernel with magic trapped inside that when agitated, bursts to create something marvelously desirable. It’s sort of like those tiny, little thoughts trapped inside an author’s head that―in an excited explosion of words―suddenly become a captivating fairy tale!”
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“And doesn't a writer do the same thing? Isn't she knitting together scraps of dreams? She hunts down the most vivid details and links them in sequences that will let a reader see, smell, and hear a world that seems complete in itself; she builds a stage set and painstakingly hides all the struts and wires and nail holes, then stands back and hopes whoever might come to see it will believe.”
― Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
― Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World
“Being a writer is like having homework every night for the rest of your life.”
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Jas’s 2025 Year in Books
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