"There comes a time when you realize that everything is a dream, and only those things preserved in writing have any possibility of being real." - James Salter quoted by Michael Dirda in the Washington Post
"The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense." -Tom Clancy
"When ideas fail, words come in very handy."
"A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation." - H. H. Munro
"A writer who will not risk hurting someone's feelings is finally no more effective than a firefighter who will not smash in windows." - Scott Spencer quoted in The Eleventh Draft