There is no such thing as great writing - there is only great re-writing!

I kissed her hard and held her tight and tried to open her lips; they were closed tight.

In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

Ezra was right half the time, and when he was wrong, he was so wrong you were never in any doubt about it.

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.

The best way is to read it all every day from the start, correcting as you go along, then go on from where you stopped the day before. When it gets so long that you can't do this every day read back two or three chapters each day; then each week read it all from the start. That's how you make it all of one piece.