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

Nobody told all the new e-mail writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they are writing with ease and enjoyment doesn't mean they are writing well.

Rewriting is the essence of writing well - where the game is won or lost.

Every time you look at a blank piece of paper, you're doing something new. You have to step onto that blank territory and remind yourself the sky didn't fall in the last time you wrote. Writing is a question of overcoming your fears-and everybody has them.

Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom just flowed.

The best way to learn to write is to study the work of the men and women who are doing the kind of writing you want to do.

Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.