I'll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I'll put that flea in a box, and then I'll put that box inside of another box, and then I'll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives, I'll smash it with a hammer! It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius I say! Or, to save on postage, I’ll just poison him with this.- Yzma, Emperor’s New Groove

Readers take in dialogue one thought at a time. A frequent mistake of beginners is to combine thoughts, which may be suitable for other forms of writing but not for dialogue. Another mistake is speechifying. Three sentences at a time is tops, yet many beginners write speeches that go on and on. - Sol Stein

Exposition can serve as an explanation. It’s all in the arrangement…. Make them want the exposition so that, when you give it, it answers the questions they already possess. - Chuck Wendig

A little story is supported by a lot of untold backstory. What they get is more than what they see. - Karen Lord

Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters. - Cassandra Clare

Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once. - Stephen King

Yet the deepest truths are best read between the lines, and, for the most part, refuse to be written. - Amos Bronson Alcott