A writer is always working.

Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person.

There's not much to be said about the period except that most writers don't reach it soon enough.

To defend what you've written is a sign that you are alive.

Keep your paragraphs short. Writing is visual - it catches the eye before it has a chance to catch the brain.

Writing organizes and clarifies our thoughts. Writing is how we think our way into a subject and make it our own. Writing enables us to find out what we know-and what we don't know-about whatever we're trying to learn.

Be wary of security as a goal. It may often look like life's best prize. Usually it's not.