A mentor, a 'teacher,' is like an editor. I absolutely value my editor, who is my teacher.

I like characters who are contradictory.

An editor is an accomplice, looking in from the outside. That objective view is essential. We don't write in a vacuum, and we don't publish in a vacuum.

As a writer, you write the book, you give it to your editor, it's copy edited, it's published, it's thrown out there, and then there's a response.

I usually submit a novel at a certain number of words, and when I've finished working with my editor, the novel is longer than when I submitted it. I need my editor to help me open up the story.

There wasn't a better teacher or mentor out there than Reggie White, on or off the field,