Quotes from Mark Rubinstein

Each time I begin writing a new book I feel as though I'm learning to write all over again.

As a writer, you have to re-earn your chops with every new book

The art of the deletion: streamlining your prose, keeping it focused and true to the story's narrative pace without denuding it.

As a writer, you write about the world as you see it, and about yourself in disguise.

A writer should not wait for inspiration; it won't come. Inspiration is fueled by the act of writing, by the sweat of the effort, by the work.

Writing brings the unanticipated act of self-discovery. Reading does, too, for one who's receptive.

Every reader is a casting director.

Conflict reveals character--in life and in the novel.

Reading is a great way to travel anywhere in the world without making reservations. It's a trip to wherever you wish to go.

Ideas are like buses. Another one always comes along.

You can't just shove the past aside. It stays with you, whether you want to acknowledge it or not.

If your writing is brutally honest, comes from the heart, beware, it will take its emotional toll. But, it's worth it.

Drama is the key. Conflict is central. Even in non-fiction.

The writing life: frustration, fear, independence, exhilaration, worry, adventure, a sense of the unknown.

Write a novel so clear and compelling you'll never need to explain what it's about.

Without conflict, there is no story. Without a story, there is no novel--only the author's self-indulgent musings.

Make art from your own life. Bring insight to your suffering, find distance, and in your maturity, write about it. Conflict & drama are the essence of a novel.

Every writer has doubts. The only way to dispel them is to write.

Harness your dragons. Turn them into stories.

I read for pleasure, to expand my world, to learn more, to live outside myself, yet enrich my inner life.

I look at revision as a sort of creative destruction--you break a script down and rebuild parts of it more imaginatively, yet remaining true to the story.

Whatever art--writing, painting, sculpture, acting, dance, music, or any other--there will be frustration & travails. It's all worth it

Reading: the best way I know to inhabit other lives, travel to distant places, have great adventures, gain knowledge and experience the world.

Fiction is a lie that tells deep truths