All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.

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

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

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

Memoir isn't the summary of a life; it's a window into a life, very much like a photograph in its selective composition. It may look like a casual and even random calling up of bygone events. It's not; it's a deliberate construction.

Never hesitate to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Bach and Picasso didn't spring full-blown as Bach or Picasso; they needed models. This is especially true of writing.

Many writers are paralyzed by the thought that they are competing with everybody else who is trying to write and presumably doing it better.... Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your only contest is with yourself.