I now understand that writing fiction was a seed planted in my soul, though I would not be ready to grow that seed for a long time.

He [Augustine] admitted: 'I am the sort of man who writes because he has made progress, and who makes progress by writing.'

Write from the soul, not from some notion about what you think the marketplace wants.The market is fickle; the soul is eternal'.

The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.

To feed your Muse, then, you should always have been hungry about life since you were a child. If not, it is a little late to start.

Writing is very improvisational It s like trying to fix a broken sewing machine with safety pins and rubber bands A lot of tinkering

If my shadow were made of ink, I’d kill it and use it to write a dark novel. Possibly a story about fractional banking.


I have been writing for about eleven years now. I went from elfish to elephantish, and in another eleven years, I hope to be Elford.

Le livre est un morceau de silence dans les mains du lecteur. Celui qui écrit se tait. Celui qui lit ne rompt pas le silence.

Doubt is a question mark; faith is an exclamation point. The most compelling, believable, realistic stories have included them both.

In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.

...ending a book with a sequel in such a way that the reader still has faith in the characters and in the writer. That's finesse.

I don't know why I started writing. I don't know why anybody does it. Maybe they're bored, or failures at something else.

[Charlotte Bronte] had thought of every maneuver for circumventing those stony obstructions of wives who would not remove themselves.

and sometimes I sitdown at my typewriterand I thinknot of someonecause there isn't anyoneto thinkabout and i wonderis it worth it