Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true ...
"
What I am trying to achieve is a voice sitting by a fireplace telling you a story on a winter’s evening.
"
That isn't writing at all, it's typing.
"
Before publication, and if provided by persons whose judgment you trust, yes, of course criticism helps. But after something is published, all I want ...
"
It was as if I were an oyster and somebody forced a grain of sand into my shell -- a grain of sand that I didn't know was there and didn't particularl...
"
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.
"
Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
"
I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.
"
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rear...
"
If there is no mystery, for the artist, to solve inside of his art, then there's no point in it. . . . for me, every act of art is the act of solving ...
"
You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.
"
It's a very excruciating life facing that blank piece of paper every day and having to reach up somewhere into the clouds and bring something down out...
"
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.
