“Don't ever quit. Never quit. Never show anybody you're hurt. Grin and walk through the cannon smoke. It will drive them up the wall. You always stay true to your own principles. You always believe in your gift. God doesn't make mistakes when he presents someone with a gift like that. It's there for a reason. Tell the naysayers, those who reject you, to drop dead! Who cares?” WritingBelieveReasonShowsCareHurtWalksMistakePrinciplesWallQuittingSmokeMaking MistakesRejectsBelieve In YouWho CaresNever QuitAlways BelieveStay TrueCannonsNaysayersRejects You Author:James Lee Burke
“Would-be novelists need to bring equal parts arrogance and ignorance to the task before them. The arrogance is almost self-explanatory. Walk into any bookstore or library, calculate how many lifetimes the average person would need to read all the fiction contained therein. To think that one has anything to contribute, to any genre or tradition, takes genuine hubris.” ThinkingNeedsWritingPersonsSelfWould BeWalksFictionIgnoranceEqualTraditionTasksLifetimeLibraryAverageGenuineGenreNovelistsArroganceBookstoresAverage PersonHubris Author:Laura Lippman
“Regard yourself as a small corporation of one. Take yourself off on team-building exercises (long walks). Hold a Christmas party every year at which you stand in the corner of your writing room, shouting very loudly to yourself while drinking a bottle of white wine. Then masturbate under the desk. The following day you will feel a deep and cohering sense of embarrassment.” FeelsWritingYearsLongWhiteWalksRoomsPartyTeamBuildingExerciseRegardWineDrinkingFollowingCornersCorporationsBottlesDesksEmbarrassmentTeam BuildingShoutingLong WalksChristmas PartyWhite Wine Author:Will Self
“I'm afraid of coaching, of writer's classes, of writer's magazines, of books on how to write. They give me centipede trouble - you know the yarn about the centipede who was asked how he managed all his feet? He tried to answer, stopped to think about it, and was never able to walk another step.” ThinkingKnowsGivingWritingBookAbleLanguageAnswersWalksStepsClassTroubleFeetGive MeMagazinesCoachingYarnCentipedes Author:Robert A. Heinlein
“The way I feel about every book is this: you don't finish it, you abandon it. All of my books have in some sense failed, otherwise I wouldn't write another one. If I wrote the perfect book, I wouldn't have to write again, and I wouldn't want to. That's not true for everyone, but it's true for me. I could walk away then. But so far I haven't managed to do it.” IfsWayWantFeelsWritingBookWalksPerfectHavensAbandon Author:Russell Banks
“Mainly I've been back to my books and writings and being nice and quiet and lazy. As I'm writing this, the radio says there's a foot of snow falling on Long Island. I really love snow and wish I could take a long walk in it right now.” WritingLongBookFallWishWalksNiceFeetRight NowQuietRadioSnowIslandsLazyBeing NiceLong IslandLong WalksSnow Falling Author:Jack Kerouac