writing

You__l have days of complete lack of faith in your abilities. But you have to keep coming back. That__ when you know you__e a writer _ when you take the failures and appear at the desk again, over and over again.

Just write. That's my only tip. And read. I guess that's two.

Wine and a straitjacket. That pretty much sums it up.

I don't remember deciding to become a writer. You decide to become a dentist or a postman. For me, writing is like being gay. You finally admit that this is who you are, you come out and hope that no one runs away.

But the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom; to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition_ and, therefore, more permanently enduring. He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation_ and to the subtle but invincible conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts, to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity_ the dead to the living and the living to the unborn.

Writers strive for the impossible: perfection. Even the universe is flawed.

Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones. _ It is not fair. _ He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people__ mouths. _ I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverley if I can help it _ but fear I must.

Harriet pushed her hair back and looked at him seriously. 'Sport, what are you going to be when you grow up?''You know what. You know I'm going to be a ball player.''Well, I'm going to be a writer. And when I say that's a mountain, that's a mountain.' Satisfied, she turned back to her town.

Don't think too much. There'll be time to think later. Analysis won't help. You're chiseling now. You're passing your hands over the wood. Now the page is no longer blank. There's something there. It isn't your business yet to know whether it's going to be prize-worthy someday, or whether it will gather dust in a drawer. Now you've carved the tree. You've chiseled the marbled. You've begun.

Each night, I close my eyes and dream. In the morning, I open my eyes again, but the dreaming doesn't stop.

When a solid first draft of an original tale is complete...you feel as if you could do anything.

Writers (my kind of writers: aspiring novelists, ruminative thinkers, people whose brains don't work quick enough to blog or link or tweet, basically old, stubborn blowhards) were through. We were like women's hat makers or buggy-whip manufacturers: Our time was done.

When a writer first begins to write, he or she feels the samefirst thrill of achievement that the young gambler or oboeplayer feels: winning a little, losing some, the gambler sees theglorious possibilities, exactly as the young oboist feels an indescribablethrill when he gets a few phrases to sound like realmusic, phrases implying an infinite possibility for satisfactionand self-expression. As long as the gambler or oboist is onlyplaying at being a gambler or oboist, everything seems possible.But when the day comes that he sets his mind on becoming a professional, suddenly he realizes how much there is to learn, how little he knows.

Art requires a delicate adjustment of the outer and inner worlds in such a way that, without changing their nature, they can be seen through each other.

I am swimming in a sea of words, attempting to keep my head above water.

Let life be the foundation. Be brave. Wander deep inside yourself to the little room no one knows about. Fling the door wide open and write.

As long as music survives, poetry will never die.

To refer even in passing to unpublished or struggling authors and their problems is to put oneself at some risk, so I will say here and now that any unsolicited manuscripts or typescripts sent to me will be destroyed unread. You must make your way yourself. Why you should be so set on the nearly always disappointing profession is a puzzling question.