Generally speaking, when a woman offers unsolicited advice or tries to help a man, she has no idea of how critical and unloving he may sound to him.
I think valuing what your body can do over how your body looks is the No. 1 advice I would give to young women about how to have healthy body image. It's not, 'Do these pants fit?' It's 'Can I do a split?'
A woman seldom asks advice before she has bought her wedding clothes.
I'm stopped by mothers who say, 'Mr. Wilder, what advice would you give to my young boy? He's really talented.'
When you seek advice, do not withhold any facts from the person whose advice you seek.
If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
When young writers approach me for advice, I remind them, as gently as I can, that they are on their own, with no help available anywhere. Which is how it should be.
