If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average

If you know what you are going to write when you're writing a poem, it's going to be average

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but read more

The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock - shock is a worn-out word - but astonish.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in read more

Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyse yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all read more

Writing is a form of personal freedom. It frees us from the mass identity we see in the making all around us. In the end, writers will write not to be outlaw heroes of some underculture but mainly to save themselves, to survive as individuals.

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness

Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.

The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike.

Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.

Good writing gives energy, whatever it is about.