#writers-on-writing

"The best writers I've read possess oodles of self-doubt, yet claw their way up with each work and remain humble. Boastful ones, not so much."

"I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me."

"...writers are a savage breed, Mr. Strike. If you want life-long friendship and selfless camaraderie, join the army and learn to kill. If you want a lifetime of temporary alliances with peers who will glory in your every failure, write novels."

"There are lots of guys out there who write a better prose line than I do and who have a better understanding of what people are really like and what humanity is supposed to mean – hell, I know that."

"I hope I don't write TOO many books! When I look at authors who have written too many books, I wonder to myself "When did they live?"I certainly want to write BECAUSE I live! I know I don't want to write in order to live! My writing is an overflow of the wine glass of my life, not a basin in which I wash out my ideals and expectations."

"Anyone who says writing is easy isn't doing it right."

"All you have to do is put one word after another, and remember how great it feels to be a writer."

"Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch."

"Ink, a Drug."

"Whatever you do, let it be lovely."

"New Year - a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story ? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours."

"I realize that some of you may have come in hopes of hearing tips on how tobecome a professional writer. I say to you, "If you really want to hurt yourparents, and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you cando is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestitehermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you'vebeen to college."

"Dance above the surface of the world. Let your thoughts lift you into creativity that is not hampered by opinion."

"In order to write the book you want to write, in the end you have to become the person you need to become to write that book."