Quotes of the Week

Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.
—Norman Mailer

When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day's work is all I can permit myself to contemplate.
—John Steinbeck

Read and write, and do these two things whenever you have a chance. Surround yourself with writers who are better than you. Don’t be afraid to fail, and don’t depend solely on external validation. Write about what thrills you and terrifies you.
—Karen Abbott

Writing is something you do alone. It’s a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don't want to make eye contact while doing it.
—John Green

Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment, learn inner independence, learn to trust that time will sort the good from the bad– including your own bad.
—Doris Lessing

I think an artist’s only responsibility is to chase their inspiration and to fall in love. If it happens to make the world a better place, that’s great, but if you’re trying to do that consciously, it feels like homework.
—Lin-Manuel Miranda

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.
—Virginia Woolf

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
—Annie Proulx