How to preside over your own internal disorder? Finding the "I" that can represent the pack of you is the first challenge of the memoirist.

...the answer is not in the damn blank page - it's in the days or years before and you have to dredge it up - exhume the past again ...

I do not distinguish between the construction of a book and that of a painting and I always proceed from the simple to the complex." - 1946

A writer writes. There are no exceptions to this reality. No excuses. Stop wasting time talking about your stories and get them on paper.

Let life be the foundation. Be brave. Wander deep inside yourself to the little room no one knows about. Fling the door wide open and write.

It’s such a confidence trick, writing a novel. The main person you have to trick into confidence is yourself. This is hard to do alone.

...the secret to writing is to get your own pain - shout it out till it hurts your throat - weep it into your pillow - then write it down ...

You know you are a writer when characters inside your brain keep demanding, 'This is my story! Now tell it or I will never leave you alone!

I know it's difficult in the beginning. But, listen. If you have the impulse to write, do yourself a favor, do the world a favor, and write.

A writing day is like any other day. Except I live in my pajamas, I forget to eat, and I suddenly look up, wondering when day turned into night.

Yeah, episodic doesn't work. Your coolest character needs something big and meaningful to do. Otherwise, well, it's just narrative shit.

If you have a story inside you but don't know where to start, look within and write from the heart, for the heart will never steer you wrong.

If you have a story inside you but don't know where to start, look within and write from the heart, for the heart will never steer you wrong.

I gradually realized that I was seeing another example of creative ebb, another step by another art on the road that may indeed end in extinction.

I'm really just playing when I write. I feel like I'm a kid again. I want my characters to do and say things like when I played with dolls!