“You know what your job is?” one director asked a young Tom Hanks after the actor showed up unprepared to rehearsal. “You have got to show up on time, you have to know the text, and you have to have a head full of ideas.” In short, ideas aren'

Recently, I went to the New-York Historical Society—don't ask me about that hyphen, I have no idea—to peruse an exhibit of Robert Caro artifacts. Caro, author of The Power Broker and four volumes (so far) of the definitive Lyndon Johnson biography, bequeathed his archives to the

Recently, we lost Ray Liotta. Elizabeth Banks directed Liotta in what turned out to be one of his last films, Cocaine Bear. Banks decided to cast him after working with him on another film as an actress and seeing Liotta's approach to performing a scene. After he delivered

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret," advises Special Agent Dale Cooper in an episode of Twin Peaks. "Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it. Don't wait for it. Just let it

Maybe it was all that time spent as an editor, but even after seven years as a full-time writer, I still need reminding that writing—the actual writing of new words, one new word after the other—is its own thing. Starkly, fundamentally different in every way from everything else

In the Japanese superhero/comedy manga and anime One-Punch Man, the eponymous hero is so amazingly powerful it takes only one punch to defeat any opponent. No matter how colossal the foe: ONE PUNCH! (If you're wondering how they managed to stretch this conceit over 27 volumes and

Get clear on what you're going to do. Then, commit to doing it. The rest takes care of itself. First, clarity: "How do I act so well?" Ian McKellen asks in an episode of Extras. "What I do is pretend to be the person I&

"I just read the greatest script I've ever read in my life," Steven Seagal informed a screenwriter (after arriving forty-five minutes late to their first meeting). "Really?" the writer replied, understandably aggravated after cooling his heels in Seagal's trailer while Seagal read.

People confuse the two audiences required for a perennial bestseller—or, really, any successful publication, regardless of your definition of success. This confusion makes the platform discussion more difficult. Let's clear it up. First audience: the people who want to buy your book on a certain topic before

"When I was a teenager," writes Visakan Veerasamy, "I’d play bass in bands, sing horribly, and toy with the idea of being a songwriter. This is a letter I wish somebody had written to me when I was 17." Veerasamy's excellent "letter