Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process

by Joe Fassler

Writing fiction is this kind of staring, too. You have to stare at your characters, like you would a stranger on the train, but for much longer than is comfortable for both of you.

I love sentences that instantly hit my bloodstream and derange me.

Becoming a writer is not a decision I ever actively made. It’s more like coming to terms with a borderline pathological obsession, an activity I simply have to do regularly to feel human.

Endings are about emotion, and logic is emotion’s enemy.

it’s easier to plot your way into an idea than it is to idea your way into a plot.