

“Writing is seduction. Good talk is part of seduction. If not so, why do so many couples who start the evening at dinner wind up in bed?”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“I have spent a good many years since―too many, I think―being ashamed about what I write. I think I was forty before I realized that almost every writer of fiction or poetry who has ever published a line has been accused by someone of wasting his or her God-given talent. If you write (or paint or dance or sculpt or sing, I suppose), someone will try to make you feel lousy about it, that's all.”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“If you're just starting out as a writer, you could do worse than strip your television's electric plug-wire, wrap a spike around it, and then stick it back into the wall. See what blows, and how far. Just an idea.”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“If you expect to succeed as a writer, rudeness should be the second-to-least of your concerns. The least of all should be polite society and what it expects. If you intend to write as truthfully as you can, your days as a member of polite society are numbered, anyway.”
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
― On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
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