Live it up so you can write it down.

I read my own books sometimes to cheer me when it is hard to write, and then I remember that it was always difficult, and how nearly impossible it was sometimes.

To hell with luck. I'll bring the luck with me.

It is silly not to hope, besides I believe it is a sin." The Old Man and the Sea

A writer's problem does not change. He himself changes and the world he lives in changes but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and having found what is true, to project it is such a way that it becomes a part of the experience of the person who reads it.

Do not think about sin, he thought. There are enough problems now without sin. Also I have no understanding of it.

Never write about a place until you're away from it, because it gives you perspective. Immediately after you've seen something you can give a photographic description of it and make it accurate. That's good practice, but it isn't creative writing.