“I write one page of masterpiece to ninety-one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”

“For God sake write and don't worry about what the boys will say nor whether it will be a masterpiece nor what.I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket.”

“You know you’re writing well when you’re throwing good stuff into the wastebasket.”

“I was trying to learn to write, commencing with the simplest things, and one of the simplest things of all and the most fundamental is violent death.”

“The first draft of anything is shit.”

“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.”

“For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.”