““It's unfortunate that we don't have a mentor system anymore. In the Renaissance, artists were apprentices to masters. You learn to do a painting by painting. But now we're all on the Internet cruising around, looking for a quick fix. So I caution writers all the time to slow down and pay more attention to the work in front of them than to the end result. I don't think you write one book and get anywhere. I think you write five books and then maybe you are finally on the right path. But it takes a long time to hear your voice, and to learn how to control material. It is amazing what words on a page can do. You think you have said it well, and you look at it three days later and realize it's a mess. I think writers coming into the business can't see the mess. Their prose seems sterling to them six months later, and its hard to recognize that there's still much to be learned.””
