Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form read more

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a read more

Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement; then it becomes a mistress, and then it becomes a master, and then a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster, and fling him out to the public.

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all read more

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.

Writing is making sense of life. You work your whole life and perhaps you've made sense of one small area.

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but read more

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.

Write your injuries in dust, your benefits in marble.

I lived to write, and wrote to live

I lived to write, and wrote to live

What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call.

What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call.

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average