Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.

Writers are the custodians of memory, and that's what this chapter is about: how to leave some kind of record of your life and of the family you were born into.

Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly should be able to write clearly-about any subject at all.

Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for a possible hernia.

Motivation clears the head faster than a nasal spray.

Also bear in mind, when you're choosing your words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize.

A writer is always working.