Polishing: a useful lesson for the hopeful writer. You say your tormented prose doesn't read as well as mine? Neither does mine, at first! Piers Anthony More Quotes by Piers Anthony More Quotes From Piers Anthony Bink knew the dolphin only from old pictures; it was a kind of magic fish that breathed air instead of water. Piers Anthony magic air water I have always admired the work of Phil Farmer and was glad for the chance to work with him. Readers today may be too young to remember his classics like The Lovers. Piers Anthony chance may today She looked around. "Oh, I've just got to hug somebody! You!" And she hugged Puck, the little ghost horse. "And you." She hugged Pook, and Peek, and even the nose of the moat monster. "But not you," she decided, encountering the zombie. Piers Anthony zombie hug horse Barbarian --A Code of Conduct honored by all true barbarian warriors, requiring excellent coordination with weapons, closeness to nature, awkwardness with women, common sense, and completion of the mission. Piers Anthony common-sense warrior weapons I do one Xanth novel a year, because at the moment that is all that publishers will accept; they don't want any other type of fiction from me, so Xanth pays my way. Piers Anthony want fiction years I maintain an ongoing survey of Internet Publishing and self publishing, so that it is now possible for any writer with a book to get it published at nominal cost or free, and to have it on sale at booksellers like Amazon.com. Piers Anthony amazon self book Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series also shows the potential of lighter fantastic fiction. I read the first, and listened to a tape of a later one, and it's fun. Piers Anthony tape fun fiction As for collaboration - I have done a lot, 26 books, and found publishers increasingly resistive to them. It's not that the books are bad; editors won't even read them. Piers Anthony collaboration editors book If the fiercest conglomerate monsters had souls, with all that implied, who could condemn them as evil? Piers Anthony soul evil monsters People talk-- they sneer at escapism. Well, there are those of us who need it. Piers Anthony escapism people needs Princess Rose should indeed be a TV movie, assuming something doesn't go wrong. I don't know how good a movie it will be, because the way movie folk think is different from the way writers think, and I distrust what isn't done my way. This is what I call a healthy paranoia. Piers Anthony princess rose thinking Adults had the notion that juveniles needed to suffer. Only when they had suffered enough to wipe out most of their naturally joyous spirits and innocence were they staid enough to be considered mature. An adult was essentially a broken-down child. Piers Anthony broken suffering children A horse is wonderful by definition. Piers Anthony horse definitions wonderful If every editor turns you down, maybe you should take a second look at your text, however, just in case. Piers Anthony editors should looks I never do a full outline, and if I did, I would not feel bound to it, because the view from inside a scene can be different from the view outside it. But neither do I just start writing and see what happens; I am far more disciplined than that. Piers Anthony different views writing We are all creatures of our ancestry! There is no right and wrong, objectively. Piers Anthony ancestry creatures It would be easier to write a novel without reader input, but I feel the fiction is richer for it. Piers Anthony would-be writing fiction When I started writing this, I found that I simply couldn't take fantasy seriously, so it became humorous, and continued from there. Piers Anthony fantasy humorous writing Is it foolish to care for non-existent folk?Then, leave me to my foolishness. Piers Anthony leaving-me care foolish