The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.

The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.

Writers seldom write the things they think. They simply write the things they think other folks think they think.

Writers seldom write the things they think. They simply write the things they think other folks think they think.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, read more

If you write, one of the questions you're always trying to answer is, Where do you get your ideas? And, if you write, you know how pointless a question this is and how difficult it is to answer.

I wanted to be a writer from my early teenage years, but I never told anyone. Writers, in my opinion, read more

I wanted to be a writer from my early teenage years, but I never told anyone. Writers, in my opinion, were god-like creatures, and to say I was striving to be a writer would be incredibly arrogant.

Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile.

Every compulsion is put upon writers to become safe, polite, obedient, and sterile.

Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors.

Nothing gives an author so much pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors.

You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.

You become a good writer just as you become a good joiner: by planing down your sentences.

My occupation is solely that of a painter.
No one can argue with pictures
(re descriptions in Uncle Tom's Cabin).

My occupation is solely that of a painter.
No one can argue with pictures
(re descriptions in Uncle Tom's Cabin).