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I use these senses - touch, sight, feel and smell - as triggers that invite readers or propel them into the scene. The trick is not to make it obvious. I've written an entire chapter about this in my book, 'The Successful Novelist.' I've lectured about it extensively, but have yet to see many people pick up on it.

The sense of smell, like a faithful counsellor, foretells its character.

Magic's about understanding - and then manipulating - how viewers digest the sensory information.

You have to see and smell and feel the circumstances of people to really understand them.

The funny thing about writing is, although you are writing about an experience which only you have had, you are trying to welcome other people into it, and there are ways I think of doing this, and one of them is through the senses, through the sounds and the smells.

Smells are so powerful and evocative, sometimes stronger than visual cues.

The sensory acts are accordingly distinguished by their objects.

The two sensibilities, the visual and the verbal, have always been linked for me - in fact, while reading a particularly evocative passage, I will imagine what the photograph I'd take of that scene would look like, even with burning and dodging notes. Maybe everyone does this.

The way it works for me is my sight and sound senses are combined. Every sound I associate with a color and every color I associate with a sound... The way I see things is constant streamers across the room, bouncing off from every touch and every sound. Over the years, I've learned what color palates I love most.

Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel.