Quotes of the Week

First requirement of the writer is the ability to concentrate for long periods of time. Second...the wish to do so.
—Joyce Carol Oates

I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.
—Nora Roberts

Every first draft is perfect because all the first draft has to do is exist.
—Jane Smiley

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean.
—Robert Louis Stevenson

Be grateful for every word you can cut.
—William Zinsser

Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential.
—Jessamyn West

Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.
—Stephen King

All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.
—Leo Tolstoy

Be ambitious for the work and not for the reward.
—Jeanette Winterson

And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.
—John Steinbeck