“So. I am not going to teach you to be writers. You already are writers. If you weren't, you wouldn't be sitting here, believe me. But you all do need to get past where you are. Past the need to stand between the work and the reader so that he'll know how clever you are. Because good writing, is writing that appears not to have been constructed but to have ripened. Like a banana. The key to this, of course, is honesty. There are no rules in fiction, except honesty. If you learn that, you will have spent your money well.”