“First, you have to think and think and think and think; then you have to force yourself to write it down.”

“it's good for you to write down your thoughts. It'stherapeutic because it forces you to slow down and think aboutlife.”

“I mean, what can you say about how you write your books? What I mean is, first you've got to think of something, and then when you've thought of it you've got to force yourself to sit down and write it. That's all." ~ Mrs. Oliver”

“Force a hand, and it will fight you. But convince and mind to think as you want it to think, an you have an ally”

“No thinking - that comes later. You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is... to write, not to think!”

“I think that to be a good writer, you have to put yourself on the line, you have to think deeply about what is meaningful to you and you have to make a good-faith effort to speak from the integrity of your own deep experience.... People don't think about assessing what is the deepest narrative for them. I think that that's about 99 percent of the subject of literature.... Write from it.”