There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.
A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
You learn by writing short stories. Keep writing short stories. The money's in novels, but writing short stories keeps your writing lean and pointed.
You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
Substitute "damn" every time you're inclined to write "very"; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection.
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.
The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
Writing is turning one's worst moments into money.
Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything.
Find the key emotion; this may be all you need know to find your short story.
Short stories can be rather stark and bare unless you put in the right details. Details make stories human, and the more human a story can be, the better.
And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.
Easy reading is damn hard writing.
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
or simply:
