It is so conceited and timid to be ashamed of one's mistakes. Of course they are mistakes. Go on to the next.

Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people.

If only I had a wife!" I used to think, "who could stay home and keep the children happy, why I could support six of them. A cinch.

...at last I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had.

Self-trust is so important. When you launch on a story, make your neck loose, feel free, good-natured. And be lazy. Feel that you are going to throw it away. Try writing utterly unplanned stories and see what comes out.

Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable.

These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas, such as: "I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat budget." But they have no slow, big ideas.