No art should be fashionable.

Custom makes monsters of us all.

One should have the courage of one's loneliness.

Why do you want to become an author? I will accept only one answer. If it is because you feel you can write better than you can do anything else then go ahead and do it without frills and flourishes. Stick to your present job and write in your spare time: but do it as if it is a whole time job.

You must be able to write. You must have a sense of form, of pattern, of design. You must have a respect for and a mastery over words.

It is a curious thing that when one speaks from the heart it is invariably in the worst of taste.

You may be able to write a novel, you may not. You will never know until you have worked very hard indeed and written at least part of it. You will never really know until you have written the whole of it and submitted it for publication.