The test of a first-rate work, and a test of your sincerity in calling it a first-rate work, is that you finish it.
Arnold BennettA sense of the value of time... is an essential preliminary to efficient work; it is the only method of avoiding hurry.
Arnold BennettA cause may be inconvenient, but it's magnificent. It's like champagne or high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it.
Arnold BennettThe second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their sole object being motion. They will tell you how many books they have read in a year. Unless you give at least 45 minutes to careful, fatiguing reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, your 90 minutes of a night are chiefly wasted.
Arnold Bennett