Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all of the tricks and has nothing to say.
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
She jerked away from me like a startled fawn might, if I had a startled fawn and it jerked away from me.
He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.
The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement.
The moment a man sets his thoughts down on paper, however secretly, he is in a sense writing for publication.