"

There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very sim...more

"

if I had waited long enough I probably never would have written anything at all since there is a tendency when you really begin to learn something abo...more

"

Every novel which is truly written contributes to the total of knowledge which is there at the disposal of the next writer who comes, but the next wri...more

"

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.

"

Find what gave you emotion; what the action was that gave you excitement. Then write it down making it clear so that the reader can see it too. Prose ...more

"

When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. If a writer can make people live there ...more

"

This too to remember. If a man writes clearly enough any one can see if he fakes. If he mystifies to avoid a straight statement, which is very differe...more

"

I was trying to write then and I found the greatest difficulty, aside from knowing what you really felt, rather that what you were supposed to feel, a...more

"

Mice: But reading all the good writers might discourage you.Y.C.: Then you ought to be discouraged.

"

I love to write. But it has never gotten any easier to do and you can't expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do.

"

…Writing is something that you can never do as well as it can be done. It is a perpetual challenge and it is more difficult than anything else that I ...more

"

There is seven-eights of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the...more

"

How little we know of what there is to know. I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much ab...more

"

Dying was nothing and he had no picture of it nor fear of it in his mind. But living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. L...more

"

There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are luc...more