
I found this in the August 2nd, 2019, New York Times. Fun reading…if you’re not suffering from reader’s block:

I found this in the August 2nd, 2019, New York Times. Fun reading…if you’re not suffering from reader’s block:
Do not place a photograph of your favorite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide.
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.
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.
Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk — away from any open flames — to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
A writer without interest or sympathy for the foibles of his fellow man is not conceivable as a writer.
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
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.
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs.
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very”; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.
I get up in the morning, torture a typewriter until it screams, then stop.

























