The key to success is to always stay ahead of the curve.

Words are powerful, they can create and destroy.

"A story is not a message with a plot wrapped around it, but a plot that may contain a message."

I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.