“Finished, the book begins.”

“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”

“I'm finished with something, but I'm not beginning anything. That's wrong. When you finish something, you ought always to begin something new.”

“I'm astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing: it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will's surrender. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.”

“It's as hard to get from almost finished to finished as to get from beginning to almost done.”

“Begin—to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this and thou wilt have finished.”