“You write your first novel with the desperation of the damned. You're afraid that you'll never write anything else, ever again.”

“You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.”

“You should write, first of all, to please yourself. You shouldn't care a damn about anybody else at all. But writing can't be a way of life - the important part of writing is living. You have to live in such a way that your writing emerges from it.”

“If you're not scared when you are writing you're not working hard enough. You'll be afraid but you have to keep going.”

“When you write, you want fame, fortune and personal satisfaction. You want to write what you want to write and feel it's good, and you want this to go on for hundreds of years. You're not likely ever to get all these things, and you're not likely to give up writing and commit suicide if you don't, but that is -- and should be -- your goal. Anything else is kind of piddling.”

“Write it, damn you, write it! What else are you good for?”