When a writer admits that he has an affection for something which he has written, it is high time to read more

When a writer admits that he has an affection for something which he has written, it is high time to pray for his soul.

You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.

You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that read more

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, read more

If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, if you write, you know how pointless a question this is and how difficult it is to answer.

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or read more

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl.

Neither man nor God is going to tell me what to write.

Neither man nor God is going to tell me what to write.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

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

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

Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors.

Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors.