Examine every word you put on paper. You'll find a surprising number that don't serve any purpose.

All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.

I try to make what I have written tighter, stronger and more precise, eliminating every element that's not doing useful work. Then I go over it once more, reading it aloud, and am always amazed at how much clutter can still be cut.

Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We all have emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn't.

Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill rode to glory on the back of the strong declarative sentence.

What I want to do is to make people laugh so that they'll see things seriously.

Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Proceed with confidence, generating it, if necessary, by pure willpower. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.