“A good book changing lives. A good writer inspires.”

“I think a good book is a good book forever.
I don't think they get less good because times change.”

“The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life — and one is as good as the other.”

“If you need drugs to be a good writer, you're not a good writer.”

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader ("Good Readers and Good Writers", p. 3).”

“There is much for a young writer to learn from our poorest writers. It is very destructive to burn bad books, almost more destructive than to burn good ones.”

“Being a writer is a good, good thing.”

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.”

“I don't think any good book is based on factual experience. Bad books are about things the writer already knew before he wrote them.”

“A bad writer is just a good writer with writer's block.”