Never write or paint to compete, but to satisfy a personal need.

The voice of your heart must prevail, whether in your joy or in your sadness.

It is highly inadvisable to think in one language and write in another. The result will sound like a poor translation.

Always keep a set of architectural blocks--or toy building blocks--on your writing desk. Rearrange their configuration from time to time. They will help you think three-dimensionally rather than linearly.

This always helps me envision staging possibilities whenever I am writing plays.

Developing Unique Perspectives

Imagine yourself waking up early one morning and discovering that you are the only man/woman in the world. Write about a day in your life with this given and describe everything through this new frame of reference.

After a few days reread what you have written. What were the major changes in your perception?

Note that if there were no changes, you need to further explore your powers of observation in the service of your imagination.

When the absence of the sun causes sadness, call forth the sun within your heart.

During respites from writing, collect photos of interiors and exteriors that interest you. Don't just look at the photos--visualize yourself in them, exploring them as far as you can go beyond the confines of the camera lens.

Every writer should be capable of penetrating multiple worlds.

It is easy to tell, from looking at his works, whether a painter is near-sighted or far-sighted.

You should be able to do the same to writers from reading their works.

Write about summer in the rainy season; write about the rain in summer. You will find that your work will be more vivid than your having written about summer in summer and the rain in the rainy season.

This is because creative writing relies on memory recall and emotional recall.

It also underscores the difference between the creative writer and the journalist, who must frequently write in the here and now.

Go easy on adjectives--they are mere embellishments. An overdose of them pushes your writing into immaturity.

Explore your nouns and your verbs. Discover how they can be powerful without help from other words.

Careful proofreading is always an assurance of not being unnecessarily misunderstood.

Go with the master who teaches you not to hide behind your writing but to emerge from it, who teaches you not from books but from life, who makes you fear not others but yourself.

Writing is like a martial art. You must first be trained to control your body and your feelings, and only then can your true spirit become free.

Do not write dialogue and then expect your character to arise from it.

First work on your character. Know him or her well. Know how he or she is feeling. Authentically feel what he or she is feeling.

As soon as you authentically feel what your character is feeling, dialogue will be spouted forth naturally, copiously, and uncontrollably from that character's mouth, including his/her particular frames of reference, associations, vocabulary, idioms and idiosyncracies of speech, verbal nuances, expressions, and an amazing power of language that is totally unlike your own.

The sun tells no stories, unlike the garrulous moon.

Clara's Article in _The Straits Times_

Contrary to what others might believe, the heart is not moody. It is as constant as the sun.

Both the mind and the heart labor, but they earn different wages and expect different rewards.

The heart and the mind sing different repertoires. That is why you cannot live to a single melody.

The heart always knows what the mind does not.