Forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable.

That which could hunger, could starve.

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

In order to rise From its own ashes A phoenix First Must Burn.

If there's any single talent a writer needs, it's persistence. If you can keep at your writing and you can learn as you write, you can tell any story you want to tell.

I wasn't trying to work out my own ancestry. I was trying to get people to feel slavery. I was trying to get across the kind of emotional and psychological stones that slavery threw at people.

In my years, I have seen that people must be their own gods and make their own good fortune. The bad will come or not come anyway.