Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open. - Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

"Books are a uniquely portable magic."

"Almost everyone can remember losing his or her virginity, and most writers can remember the first book he/she put down thinking: I can do better than this. Hell, I am doing better than this! What could be more encouraging to the struggling writer than to realize his/her work is unquestionably better than that of someone who actually got paid for his/her stuff?"

"I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all."

"You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair ... Come to it any way but lightly."

"you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will."