Quotes of the Week

The first draft of anything is shit.
—Ernest Hemingway

A good style should show no sign of effort. What is written should seem to be a happy accident.
—Somerset Maugham

Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent.
—Marlon Brando

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence...
—E.B. White

I'll give you the whole secret of short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.
—O. Henry

Sometimes a flat-footed sentence is what serves, so you don’t get all writerly: “He opened the door.” There, it’s open.
—Amy Hempel

The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
—Billy Wilder

Nothing teaches you as much about writing dialogue as listening to it.
—Judy Blume

There is no such thing as simple. Simple is hard.
—Martin Scorsese