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.

Above all things-read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied.

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 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.

One should have the courage of one's loneliness.

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.

No coffee is ever quite as good as it smells.