Critics are people who sit on the mountaintop and look down on the battlefield. When the fighting is finished, they take it upon themselves to come down from the mountain and shoot the survivors.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn’t give it up because by that time I was too famous.
My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
The fact is, I don’t know where my ideas come from. Nor does any writer. The only real answer is to drink way too much coffee and buy yourself a desk that doesn’t collapse when you beat your head against it.
What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.
Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself.
A true author, no matter the medium, is an artist with godlike knowledge of his subject, and the proof of his authorship is that his pages smack of authority.
Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

























