"One of the few ways I can almost be certain I'll understand something is by sitting down and writing about it. Because by forcing yourself to write about it and putting it down in words, you can't avoid having to come to grips with it. You might be wrong, but you have to think about it very intensely to write about it. So I use writing as a learning tool."
— Hunter S. Thompson
“Read widely, and without apology. Read what you want to read, not what someone tells you you should read.”
— Joyce Carol Oates
“Don't listen to those who say, you taking too big a chance. Michelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most important, don't listen when the little voice of fear inside you rears its ugly head and says. they all smarter than you out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier, and they have connections. I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respects.”
—Neil Simon
"A lot of writers - and I'm one of them - do tend to feel dissatisfied. It makes you a little hard to live with, but it's a goad and does keep you alert and restless."
— Tobias Wolff
"If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves."
— Lillian Hellman
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"I was so happy I thought of it. It came to me. Which is what the creative act is all about. Things come to you without you necessarily knowing what they mean!"
— Maurice Sendak