You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end-much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you.

Duty should be a byproduct.

If you are never satisfied with what you write, that is a good sign. It means that your vision can see so far that it's hard to come up to it. Again I say - the only unfortunate people are the glib ones, immediately satisfied with their work. To them, the ocean is only knee-deep.

The only good teachers for you are those friends who love you, who think you are interesting, or very important, or wonderfully funny.

Writing is the action of thinking, just as drawing is the action of seeing and composing music is the action of hearing.

I will tell you what I have learned myself. For me, a long five or six mile walk helps. And one must go alone and every day.

I learned...that inspiration does not come like a bolt, nor is it kinetic, energetic striving, but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing, prime it with a little solitude and idleness.