“Gertrude Johnson could feel no real respect for, no real interest in, anybody who wasn't a writer. For her there were two species: writers and people; and the writers were really people, and the people weren't.”

“When people asked what I wanted to be, I'd tell them a writer. They were surprised or indifferent. If people don't read, what is a writer?”

“Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.”

“A real writer […] doesn't look up to any other writer but himself.”

“That 'writers write' is meant to be self-evident. People like to say it. I find it is hardly ever true. Writers drink. Writers rant. Writers phone. Writers sleep. I have met very few writers who write at all.”

“The real writers are tenacious creatures, and they found a way long before there were writers workshops and creative writing courses in the universities. In the absence of formal frameworks, personal initiatives and informal frameworks become more important.”

“Edvin is one of those persons who write to survive as writers and people; for them being a human and writer is the same thing.”

“writers are desperate people and when they stop being desperate they stop being writers.”

“Real writers are those who want to write, need to write, have to write.”

“If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that.”