Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.

Cats are dangerous companions for writers because cat watching is a near-perfect method of writing avoidance

"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." -Robert Frost

"The first thing you have to consider when writing a novel is your story, and then your story—and then your story!"

"Only write from your own passion, your own truth. That's the only thing you really know about, and anything else leads you away from the pulse." -Marianne Williamson

"If you would be a writer, first be a reader. Only through the assimilation of ideas, thoughts and philosophies can one begin to focus his own ideas, thoughts and philosophies." -Allan W. Eckert

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way."

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ~Toni Morrison

The wastebasket is a writer's best friend. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer. ~Karl Kraus

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make. ~Truman Capote