With The Dread, first kiss was the beginning. Second kiss was the end.

Great relationships create great characters. Make them feel real. Alive. Tangible and unforgettable. Bad relationships kill them. Bury them. Make you wish they hadn't wasted your precious time.

He'd failed them, the swimming goldfish of his life's tiny existence whom he held so dear in his heart; he'd turned his muses into mistakes and no one knew the difference but him.

The sound of diesel fuel rushing through grimy pistons and cylinders below a morning-fogged window bored through his ears like a deep-water drill bit, and the thump of his own heartbeat cursed him for breaking one of his many rules.

He took a deep breath in, still managing himself as if he were resisting temptation. He was a soldier, his father was in the service, too. Crying wasn't something Morell men did. They just didn't. He hadn't cried at Robbie Morell's funeral.So he wasn't going to now.

His eyesight was possessed by the colours of trauma, cracking and bubbling like an old Super Eight film to remind him of his near-death drowning some two months ago in that very moment when he needed to act.

Of course I believe in magic. I believe in storytelling.

Writers are like onions, layers upon layers upon layers.

I don't know who a character is till I look into their eyes.

They say a picture's worth a thousand words, but with me it always ends up being well over a hundred thousand.

Fiction is a careful combination of observation, inspiration, and imagination.

Life is about connection, not perfection.

To reach for yourself is to survive, to reach for others is to provide.

I just want you to know, I love the way you look at me. Make's me feel like everything's gonna be okay.