“There are three secrets to writing a novel. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are.”

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

“There isn't, unfortunately, any way of discovering whether you can write a publishable novel except by writing it.”

“If a writer writes poems and short stories and novels, but nobody ever reads them, is she really a writer?”

“Want to know what it feels like when your soul bleeds? Write a novel.”

“It must take a lot of self-discipline,' she said. 'Oh, I don't know. I don't have much.' He felt himself about to say again, and unable to resist saying, that 'Dumas, I think it was Dumas, some terrifically prolific Frenchman, said that writing novels is a simple matter - if you write one page a day, you'll write one novel a year, two pages a day, two novels a year, three pages, three novels, and so on. And how long does it take to cover a page with writing? Twenty minutes? An hour? So you see. Very easy really.''I don't know,' she said, laughing. 'I can't even bring myself to write a letter.' 'Oh, now that's hard.'("Novelty")”