“An editor is a person who knows more about writing than writers do but who has escaped the terrible desire to write.”

“I believe that a writer is a person who writes. An author is a person who has written.”

“A writer who has perfect writing skills and zero honesty is not an author but a sales person.”

“For anyone who wants to write, and hopes some day to publish what he or she has written, it is far more important to write than it is to study about writing.”

“[I]t's the child writer who has figured out, early on, that writing is about saving your soul.”

“Here are the two states in which you may exist: person who writes, or person who does not. If you write: you are a writer. If you do not write: you are not. Aspiring is a meaningless null state that romanticizes Not Writing. It’s as ludicrous as saying, “I aspire to pick up that piece of paper that fell on the floor.” Either pick it up or don’t. I don’t want to hear about how your diaper’s full. Take it off or stop talking about it.”