Billy Marshall Stoneking

“The answer to the question, 'where's the drama?' is another question: 'what's the problem?”

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“What monster sleeps in the deep of your story? You need a monster. Without a monster there is no story.”

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“If you would know this country, you must know its stories.”

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“From the writer's perspective, audience is always an act of the imagination.”

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“No one ever developed their character by arranging their experiences in such a way that only ‘good’ things are allowed to happen…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“Character is not purchased with a dance in the street. It's expensive and hard to come by. Though it is the heir…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“There’s a chasm between writing about yourself and writing about your personal life. A lot of young writers want to turn their…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“POUND We spend twelve hundred generations developing so-called civilization to the point where it produces an expert who can offer us salvation…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“The ending of a story tells us what it means.”

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“Originality has nothing to do with producing something ’ new’ - it is about seeking the source, the primordial ground from which…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“Some writers might tell you that writing is like a piece of magic - a process of creating something out of nothing,…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“No matter how cleverly we disguise our anxieties they bear witness to the imperfect nature of the human heart. To be is…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“A mistake is the name we give to any action in which we perceive a difference between what we intended and what…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking

“Your audience is your adversary. If you don't have one get one - imagine it. Imagine it now. To whom is your…

— Billy Marshall Stoneking