"Bad writing is more than a matter of shit syntax and faulty observation; bad writing usually arises from a stubborn refusal to tell stories about what people actually do― to face the fact, let us say, that murderers sometimes help old ladies cross the street."
"Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open."
"To write is human, to edit is divine."
"Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing."
"The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor."
"When you write a book, you spend day after day scanning and identifying the trees. When you’re done, you have to step back and look at the forest."