"Take care of your ears, they're everything!"

“Technique in the minds of many is something rigid, something like a formula that you impose on the material; but in the best stories it is something organic, something that grows out of the material, and this being the case, it is different for every story of any account that has ever been written.”

“A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought, within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.”

“Set your business plan to win; raise the bar or you're not going to be prepared. You need to think that what you're doing will make you $100 million.”

“When all the details fit in perfectly, something is probably wrong with the story.”

Source : Charles Baxter (1997). “Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction”

“Sometimes you can do things for people other than yourself.”

“I give a portion of my time to helping others. It is good for my own health.”

“The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.”

“People are generally resistant to teaching and training because it requires effort. This clashes with the natural wiring of human adults: We are fundamentally lazy.”