If you write a hundred short stories and they're all bad, that doesn't mean you've failed. You fail only if you stop writing.

It was only the other night everything was fine and the next thing I know Im drowning. How many times can a man go down and still be alive? I can't breathe

Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. Plot is observed after the fact rather than before. It cannot precede action. It is the chart that remains when an action is through. That is all Plot ever should be. It is human desire let run, running, and reaching a goal. It cannot be mechanical. It can only be dynamic.

Do three things each night before you go to bed: read a poem, read a short story, read an essay.

You don’t question Providence. If you can’t have the reality, a dream is just as good.

Fire the doubters out of your life.

Writing is like sex. You have to save your love for the love object. If you go around spouting about your idea, there'll be no "charge" left. You can't father children that way.