Playboy interview (1996)
“Writing is the flip side of sex - it's only good when it's over.”
“There is no good reason. Don't waste your life waiting for good reasons… You'll wait and wait.”
Source: Evening
“Writing is all about the preservation of your own voice.”
Dreams on Spec (2007)
Context: Writing is all about the preservation of your own voice. So if you give that voice away by guessing what you think and you think and you think as you go, you’ll have less to say and then it’ll go away completely!
“I don't think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won't be good at it.”
Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
“If your life is worth thinking about, it is worth writing about.”
Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
“Live life like you're writing your own obituary.”
Death and the Eternal Forever (2014)
“The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything.”
Shakespeare
Literary Studies (1879)
Context: The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.
