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You know you’re writing well when you’re throwing good stuff into the wastebasket.

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Below Les Avants there was a chalet where the pension was wonderful and where we would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed toge...more

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There is no lonelier man in death, except the suicide, than that man who has lived many years with a good wife and then outlived her. If two people lo...more

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All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to y...more

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You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or rather you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writ...more

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Dostoevsky was made by being sent to Siberia. Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged.

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When I am working on a book or a story I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you and it is cool or c...more

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Remember to get the weather in your damn book--weather is very important.

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Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.

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Don't you believe I love you? Don't know how I can make you believe. I didn't want to kiss you goodbye--that was the trouble--I wanted to kiss you goo...more

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The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shockproof shit detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.

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Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness, but I doubt if they improve his writing.... For he does his work alone and if he is a good...more

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The writer must write what he has to say not speak it.

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Up in that room I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it ...more

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The hard part about writing a novel is finishing it.