It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous.
Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.
I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.
There is probably no hell for authors in the next world - they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this.
If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.
A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit.
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.
Exercise the writing muscle every day.
Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
Believe you can and you're halfway there.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.
Easy reading is damn hard writing.
Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.
I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint - and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.
Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
There are three difficulties in authorship; to write any thing worth the publishing — to find honest men to publish it — and to get sensible men to read it.
The best way to succeed is to discover what you love and find a way to offer it to others.
The secret of successful writing lies in striking the right keys on the typewriter.
If I could go back in time and tell my younger self that eventually that I'd become very successful writing Dune books after Frank Herbert's death, I would have laughed myself silly, I think, at how strange that prospect would be.
The first and perhaps the most important requirement for a successful writing performance - and writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig - is to understand the nature of the occasion.
or simply:
