Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. Mark Twain
That literary-popular distinction is, in my view, vastly overstated. At the far poles there are clearly books that are purely commercial and purely literary, written for audiences that want to see the same thing enacted over and over and over again. But the middle is where most people read and most people write. Justin Cronin
The best books come from someplace inside. You don't write because you want to, but because you have to. Judy Blume
The child from nine to 12 interests me very much. And so, those were the years that I like to write about, when I'm writing. Judy Blume
The hardest part is making the time to write. Not finding the time to write, mind you. Making. Carmen Agra Deedy
The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. Joan Didion
The most annoying and full-of-crap thing a writer says is, 'I write only for myself, I don't care if anyone reads it.' A writer without a reader doesn't exist. Harlan Coben
The most original thing a writer can do is write like himself. It is also his most difficult task. Robertson Davies
The problem with the literary hothouse of New York City is that people spend so much time looking in the mirror. They go to parties with people who are just like them, and they write novels about people who are just like them. It's limiting. Anne Fadiman
The readers are the ones who let us live our dreams. I try to write books which are really compelling - that you'd take on vacation and rather than going out, you'd read in your hotel room because you had to find out what happened. Hopefully that's what readers are responding to. Harlan Coben
The skating community is very fickle. And with me, they're especially fickle for whatever reason. Maybe I bring it on myself, but if you don't prove yourself and you don't skate consistently, then they can very easily write you off and bring somebody from behind you and put them in your place. Johnny Weir
The truth is, it's easier for me to write than talk... to express the state I'm in at any time. Joan Didion
The woman I'm attracted to won't be based on what I write down on paper. It's going to be what I feel. Apolo Ohno
The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making moneyKarl Heinrich Marx
The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. Annie Dillard
There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention. Ernest Hemingway