“A writer lives at best, in a state of astonishment.”

“A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes.”

“Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay.”

“Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.”

“in that small [time] most greatly lived this star of England:Fortune made his sword, By which the world's best garden he achiev'dAnd left it to his son imperial lord.Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd Kingof France and England did this King succeed;Whose state so many of had the managing,That they lost France and made his England bleed.”

“The world loves to be amused by hollow professions, to be deceived by flattering appearances, to live in a state of hallucination; and can forgive everything but the plain, downright, simple, honest truth.”

“The writer who is a real writer is a rebel who never stops.”