One's character is set at an early age, son. The choices you make now will affect you for the rest of your life." He was quiet for a minute then dropped the curtain and said, "I hate to see you swim out so far you can't swim back. ↗
Lots of people can write a good first page but to sustain it, that's my litmus test. If I flip to the middle of the book and there's a piece of dialogue that's just outstanding, or a description, then I'll flip back to the first page and start it. ↗
Having a lot of people suddenly depending on me to get the job done was a marvelous motivator. The book and movie deals seemed to flip a switch in my head, and off I went. ↗
Home Alone was a lot and a lot and a lot of standing and sitting and walking and running and it was physically demanding but in this, I'm doing back flips and riding ostriches. It's physically demanding in a new way, so it's fun. ↗