A writer has to surprise himself to be worth reading.
A writer is a spectator, looking at everything with a highly critical eye.
Charity you can give even when you haven't got.
In my dreams I ate and I ate my dreams.
Somewhere I put it this way: first drafts are for learning what one’s fiction wants him to say. Revision works with that knowledge to enlarge and enhance an idea, to reform it. Revision is one of the exquisite pleasures of writing.
If the stories come, you get them written, you're on the right track. Eventually everyone learns his or her own best way. The real mystery to crack is you.