Nothing can destroy the good writer. The only thing that can alter the good writer is death. Good ones don't have time to bother with success or getting rich.

And when I think about that, I think that if nothing but being married will help a man, he's durn nigh hopeless.

How do our lives ravel out into the no-wind, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-string: in sunset we fall into furious attitudes, dead gestures of dolls.

A writer is trying to create believable people in credible moving situations in the most moving way he can.

The writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness, all, to get the book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate; the 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' is worth any number of old ladies.

Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique.

My own experience has been that the tools I need for my trade are paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky.