Like most-maybe all- writers, I learned to write by writing and, by example, by reading books.
Francine ProseI remember, when I was a little kid, I was good at sports, and I could jump off the high board. And then puberty hit, and suddenly I was looking to boys for direction. I remember that as a great loss.
Francine ProseTo be truthful, some writers stop you dead in your tracks by making you see your own work in the most unflattering light. Each of us will meet a different harbinger of personal failure, some innocent genius chosen by us for reasons having to do with what we see as our own inadequacies. The only remedy to this I have found is to read a writer whose work is entirely different from another, though not necessarily more like your own—a difference that will remind you of how many rooms there are in the house of art.
Francine ProseWe never believe we're beautiful, no matter how many times we hear it. We never believe it until someone says it in the right way.
Francine Prose