Quotes of the Week

Remember to get the weather in your damn book — weather is very important.
—Ernest Hemingway

I am a writer, and I write what I want to write.
—J.K. Rowling

When you’re speaking in the truest, most intimate voice about your life, you are speaking with the universal voice.
—Cheryl Strayed

The first person you should think of pleasing in writing a book is yourself. If you can amuse yourself for the length of time it takes to write a book, the publishers and the readers can and will come later.
—Patricia Highsmith

I do a lot of rewriting. It’s very painful.
—James Baldwin

Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
—Elmore Leonard

I think it’s terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people’s expectations. They generally produce their worst work when they do that.
—David Bowie

I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.
—Anne Frank

I never forget that the average man, from the fields, the streets, the bars, the offices and even the gutters of his country, has acquired a vividness of speech that goes beyond anything I could invent.
—James M. Cain

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.
—Billie Holiday

The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention.
—Flannery O'Connor