Writers on Writing

Wit and wisdom from some of the best ...
> “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” —Nathaniel Hawthorne

> "The most solid advice for a writer is this, I think: Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough." —William Saroyan

> “The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between the lightning bolt and the lightning bug.” —Mark Twain

> “I hate writing. I love having written.” —Dorothy Parker

> "Kill your darlings." —William Faulkner

> "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."—Douglas Adams

> "Take out the sentence you love best. You're trying too hard." —David Sedaris

> “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” —W. Somerset Maugham

> “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.” —Dr. Seuss

> “The goal of writing is not to be understood but to write so as not to be misunderstood.” —Cicero

> “I never know what I think about something until I read what I've written on it.” —William Faulkner

> “It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow

> "Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards." —Robert Heinlein

> “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” —Stephen King

> “There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.” —Red Smith