1. If a young writer can refrain from writing, he shouldn’t hesitate to do so.
–Andre Gide
2. The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.
– Agatha Christie
3. A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. That is too much of a temptation to the editor.
–Ring Lardner
4. I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.
–Toni Morrison
5. What is written without effort is in generally read without pleasure.
–Samuel Johnson
6. We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
–Ernest Hemingway
7. Listen carefully to the first criticism of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don’t like–then cultivate it. That’s the part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping.
–Jean Cocteau
8. Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
–Erica Jong
All quotes taken from Writers on Writing Jon Winokur, Running Press. I wholeheartedly recommend this book as well as his two Curmudgeon books.
©2003 Deirdre Savoy
