I never show anything to anybody until I've finished it

At the height of the McCarthy period, writers were being hounded.

You have to expect the raps when you have achieved popularity as a writer

Writers of fiction, when they begin, are more likely to try the short form

I've gone on the wagon, but my body doesn't believe it.

The last paragraph in which you tell what the story is about is almost always best left out.

I never drink while I'm working, but after a few glasses I get ideas that would never have occurred to me dead sober.