“The secret is writing down one simple line after another.”

“He asked, "What makes a man a writer?" "Well," I said, "it's simple. You either get it down on paper, or jump off a bridge.”

“I remembered my New Orleans days, living on two five-cent candy bars a day for weeks at a time in order to have leisure to write. But starvation, unfortunately, didn't improve art. It only hindered it. A man's soul was rooted in his stomach. A man could write much better after eating a porterhouse steak and drinking a pint of whiskey than he could ever write after eating a nickel candy bar. The myth of the starving artist was a hoax.”

“I'm going to open another vottle. not a vottle, but a bottle. you open it and I'll drink it. and you try to write as much as I did without falling off of your chair.”

“so it's always a process of letting go, one way or another”

“An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.”

“he asked, "what makes a man awriter?""well," I said, "it's simple, it's either youget it down on paper or you jump off abridge.writers are desperate people and when they stopbeing desperate they stop beingwriters.""are you desperate?""I don't know...”