You hear the best stories from ordinary people. That sense of immediacy is more real to me than a lot of writerly literary-type crafted stories. I want that immediacy when I read a novel.

But when the work was finished the Craftsman kept wishing that there were someone to ponder the plan of so great a work to love its beauty and to wonder at its vastness.

Hardboiled crime fiction came of age in 'Black Mask' magazine during the Twenties and Thirties. Writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler learnt their craft and developed a distinct literary style and attitude toward the modern world.

Celebrity doesn't have anything to do with art or craft. It's about being rich and thinking that you're better than everybody else.

Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks and has nothing to say.

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do.

Art is not a handicraft it is the transmission of feeling the artist has experienced.

The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.

My mom the fabulous Bertie Kinsey is an amazing seamstress. She quilts and sews and is so crafty. We call her the Southern Martha Stewart!