As quoted by Lewis Nichols http://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/30/obituaries/lewis-nichols-times-drama-critic-during-world-war-ii-dead-at-78.html in "Talk With Jim Bishop" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F03EEDE133AE53BBC4E53DFB466838E649EDE, The New York Times (6 February 1955).
“The good stories, of course, write themselves. And somebody wants to know who are the really good writers, and how many of them there are. There aren't any. Most of the writers are likeable frauds. Some are unlikable frauds.”
It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs (1995)
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R. A. Lafferty 109
American writer 1914–2002Related quotes
“Good writers indulge their audience; great writers know better.”
The Well-Spoken Thesaurus (2011)

"Post to the Host" (July 2005) http://www.publicradio.org/columns/prairiehome/posthost/2005/07/
Context: Journalism is a good place for any writer to start — the retailing of fact is always a useful trade and can it help you learn to appreciate the declarative sentence. A young writer is easily tempted by the allusive and ethereal and ironic and reflective, but the declarative is at the bottom of most good writing.

Source: "Yan Geling: I Am Also A Person In The Cave" https://www.bannedbook.org/en/bnews/lifebaike/20211010/1635954.html (10 October 2021)

“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”
Book II, ch. 18.
Discourses

“A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.”

Nov. 26th: Writing Advice (And Notes on Surnameless Tiffany) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gf69J1Go98&feature=channel
YouTube

"Interview" at his official website http://www.michaelastackpole.com/?page_id=8

“I love writers who limit themselves, who write beneath their intelligence.”
J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 27
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)