General Quotes

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

The expert in everything was once a beginner.

You don 't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

The secret to getting ahead is getting started.

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good.

Half my life is an act of revision.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged.

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

Writing is its own reward.

I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

Writers live twice.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.

As a writer, you should not judge, you should understand.

Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

Writing books is the closest men ever come to childbearing.

Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately after they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

I write to discover what I know.

The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

Always be a poet, even in prose.

To survive, you must tell stories.

Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money.

You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.