Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft. If you want to write, practice writing.

Write in the morning, revise in the afternoon, read at night, and spend the rest of your time exercising your diplomacy, stealth, and charm.

No black woman writer in this culture can write "too much". Indeed, no woman writer can write "too much"...No woman has ever written enough.

I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.

Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right.

Hundreds of butterflies flitted in and out of sight like short-lived punctuation marks in a stream of consciousness without beginning or end.

You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word.

When a poet digs himself into a hole, he doesn't climb out. He digs deeper, enjoys the scenery, and comes out the other side enlightened.

When you sit down to write, write. Don't do anything else except go to the bathroom, and only do that if it absolutely cannot be put off.

Writing is more than anything a compulsion like some people wash their hands thirty times a day for fear of awful consequences if they do not

...what makes a story unique is not necessarily the information in the story but what the writer chooses to put in or leave out.(pg. 146-147)

If only these walls could talk…the world would know just how hard it is to tell the truth in a story in which everyone’s a liar.

You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know

We writers are a crazy group. I can't think of any other profession where the actual work is deep within, uncomfortable, and wanting out.

My advice is to write in the nude. Unless you do your writing in a public restroom, and in that case, I’d recommend wearing flip flops.