My thoughts about writers2. Write without pay until
somebody offers to pay you.
If nobody offers within three
years, sawing wood is what
you were intended for.
4. The most essential gift for
a good writer is a
built-in, shock-proof, shit
detector. This is the
writer's radar and all great
writers have had it.
7. An author ought to write for
the youth of his own generation,
the critics of the next, and the
schoolmasters of ever
afterwards.
8. The greatest part of a writer's
time is spent in reading, in order
to write; a man will turn over half
a library to make one book.
9. An author who speaks
about his own books is almost
as bad as a mother who talks
about her own children.
11. Making a book is a craft,
like making a clock;
it needs more than native
wit to be an author.
14. Writing is a dreadful labor,
yet not so dreadful as Idleness.
16. I have the conviction
that excessive literary production
is a social offence.
18. A writer is congenitally
unable to tell the truth and
that is why we call what
he writes fiction.
19. To write well, express
yourself like common people,
but think like a wise man. Or,
think as wise men do, but speak
as the common people do.
20. Never write anything that
does not give you great
pleasure. Emotion is
easily transferred from
the writer to the reader.
21. A writer is someone who can
make a riddle out of an answer.
23. If any man wishes to
write a clear style, let him first
be clear in his thoughts.
25. He who does not expect
a million readers should not
write a line.
26. Every author in some
degree portrays himself
in his works, even
if it be against his will.
28. You can never correct your work well
until you have forgotten it.
30. I love being a writer, what I
can't stand is the paperwork.
31. A woman must
have money and a
room of her own if she
is to write fiction.
32. Writers and politicians are
natural rivals. Both groups
try to make the world in
their own images; they
fight for the same territory.
33. When an author is too
meticulous about his style,
you may presume that his
mind is frivolous and his
content flimsy.
34. For a country to have a great
writer is like having
another government. That's
why no régime has
ever loved great writers, only
minor ones.
35. You don't write because
you want to say something; you
write because you've got
something to say.
37. I can write better than
anybody who can write faster,
and I can write faster than
anybody who can write better.