“You used to be entertaining before you started to write.”

“Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one. If you have anything to say, anything you feel nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that you will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before, so that the thing you have to say and the way of saying it blend as one matter - as indissolubly as if they were conceived together…." - The Crack-Up”

“You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”

“Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.”

“What are you going to do? "Can't say - run for president, write -" "Greenwich Village?" "Good heavens, no - I said write - not drink.”

“If you have anything to say, anything you feel nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that you will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before, so that the thing you have to say and the way of saying it blend as one matter--as indissolubly as if they were conceived together.”

“You should have risen above it," I said smugly. "It's not a slam at you when people are rude -- it's a slam at the people they've met before.”