On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

You can’t just come out and say what you have to say. That’s what people do on airplanes, when a man plops down next to you in the aisle seat of your flight to New York, spills peanuts all over the place (back when the cheapskate airlines at least gave you peanuts), and tells you about what his boss did to him the day before. You know how your eyes glaze over when you hear a story like that? That’s because of the way he’s telling his story. You need a good way to tell your story.

I came on the old and best ways of writing through ignorance and experiment and was startled when truths leaped out of brushes like quail before gunshot.

Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a blank piece of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

Writing is supposed to be difficult, agonizing, a dreadful exercise, a terrible occupation.

The hard part is putting one word after another.