Quotes
I do think that we have writers today who are of the caliber of the great folklore writers of the past, like Hans Christian Andersen.
I divide my time between homes in Arizona and England, six months a year in each place.
I came to New York, straight out of college, wanting one thing in life: to work on Jim Henson's film The Dark Crystal.
Filmmaking can be a fine art.
Editing an anthology, even though the stories in them are the work and creative children of the authors involved, you have more of an influence on the whole shape of the book. Your name is on it, you're providing the theme for it, whereas it's a whole different skill being a novel editor.
But for me, really, the written word is always stronger than film.
As I worked with writers and artists, it became clear that I was too envious of them; I wanted to be writing and doing art myself. And so I was editing throughout the '80s, but by the end of the'80s, I was leading a dual life. I was editing in New York and being an artist in Boston.
All of my paintings are about stories and language. Storytelling always comes first. And in particular, I'm a storyteller working with folkloric and mythic materials.
A lot of the old folklore and fairy tales and myths are intensely dark, particularly once you get away from Victorian watered-down versions.
A good novel editor is invisible.
A field needs to keep growing and changing if it's going to maintain its vitality, and I was worried by the dearth of younger writers and editors with any real vision. In the last few years, however, I've been astonished by the number of new people who have been published who are really good.
Today's gossip is tomorrow's headline.
The only ones who like Milton Berle are his mother-and the public.
Nothing recedes like success.
I usually get my stuff from people who promised somebody else that they would keep it a secret.
Hollywood is where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.
Hollywood is a place where they place you under contract instead of under observation.
Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.
Good evening Mr and Mrs America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press.
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.