Quotes from Mark Rubinstein

You are what you read. You write what you are.

No one can live a full life alone & isolated, least of all a writer

Writing creates new people & worlds. When you read, you enter into new people & worlds. When you read and write, it's the best of all worlds.

Write fearlessly, from the heart; pour your guts out and don't give a damn about what anyone thinks.

No matter how much you write and do other things, make time to read.

Plot-driven or character-driven, a novel must grab the reader's emotions and not let go til the final word.

There's a novel in every life's story. You must have courage, perseverance and use imagination to unearth it.

Good or evil, it doesn't really matter, so long as your novel's character is interesting.

A good novel is an intensely personal rendezvous between reader and writer.

Downer: When the searing prose of the night before reads so bleakly pedestrian in the cold light of morning

A good novel appeals to emotions, not intellect. It makes you feel things deeply, and then you think about them.

When you walk, cherish the silence. Let your mind wander. The child within picks up crayons & begins to write.

I sometimes surprise myself when one of my characters says something I would never say.

Dealing with truth is tough. In a sense, we're all unreliable narrators.

Every good story challenges the protagonist, and the reader.

There's no such thing as a dull life. Every life is a saga.

First draft, use your heart. Revision, use your head

Creativity isn't defined by word count, or the number of books one has published. A writer makes a commitment to stretch as far as possible, reaching for the music of words.

There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. A writer's task is to arrange them into sentences telling a unique story with guts, heart & soul.

As a writer you have as many bosses as you have readers...though in the end, you must answer to yourself.

Conflict is the essence of a novel. Conflict, conflict, and more conflict. Oh, and choices.

Writing is a way of remaking the world, both for the writer and reader.

The disappointment you feel when viewing the movie version of a character you've imagined while reading the novel.

The writing life is not for the timid. It's filled with challenge, uncertainty & frustration, but it's a beautiful, expansive & creative one