Not everybody has a talent for painting, or for the piano, or for dance. But we can write our way into the artist's head and into his problems and solutions. Or we can go there with another writer.

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

Never let anything go out into the world that you don't understand.

Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds-the writer is always slightly behind.

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

Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver - words like "enthralling" and "luminous."

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.