Show, don’t tell,” but I stand by Show and Tell, because when writers put their work out into the world, they’re like kids bringing their broken unicorns and chewed-up teddy bears into class in the...

Love the work: the grind, the dreaming, the distracted not-sleep, all of it. It’s the one thing in the job that will always be there, and the real pleasure in the profession. Everything else is...

poems are small moments of enlightenment

T[he rules of writing] require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it.

Bulldogs are wonderful creatures to include in books. Besides their adorable bulldogishness, they provide the writer with a rare chance to use forms of the verb “snuffle.

Poetry expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition. It keeps you aware of your nose, your eye, your ear, your tongue, your hand.

So I have to create the whole thing afresh for myself each time. Probably all writers now are in the same boat. It is the penalty we pay for breaking with tradition, and the solitude...

All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully...

…menulislah setiap hari, berpura-pura bahwa kau menerima gaji, berpura-pura bahwa kau harus menyerahkan sesuatu atau dipecat

In fact, one could argue that the skill of the fiction writer boils down to the ability to exploit intensity.

You must write as if Dostoyevsky himself will be reading your novel, and Shakespeare will be acting it out.

…what draws us into a story and keeps us there is the firing of our dopamine neurons, signaling that intriguing information is on the way.

Doing it all the time, whether or not we are in the mood, gives us ownership of our writing ability. It takes it out of the realm of conjuring where we stand on the rock...

Most—but not all—of the writers I knew then were young men who cherished their independence, were unconcerned about job security, and were serious about their writing. They didn’t want to be anyone’s employee if it...

Writer’s block? I’ve never heard of a plumber complain about plumber’s block.

You might say as you tirelessly said of my stories, at least of the adjectives, that I should render the evidence, not render the verdict… (“Conveyance: The Story I would Not Want Bill Wilson To...

I tell everyone who asks me about writing…almost everyone has an idea for a book, and some even have a great ending, but it’s that 290 or so pages in between that are tough!

Remember that you don’t write a story because you have an idea but because you have a believable character.

Depend upon it, after all, Thomas, Literature is the most noble of professions. In fact, it is about the only one fit for a man. For my own part, there is no seducing me from...

However great a man’s natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.

There’s no right way of writing. There’s only your way.

How many great gems were lost to thoughtand not put down to pen.You can but think of just a fewand then they’re lost again.

A writer needs to ingest love to be passionate. Passion is a metabolite of love, and good writing is an active metabolite of passion.

Don’t write with a pen. Ink tends to give the impression the words shouldn’t be changed.Write with what gives you the most sensual satisfaction.Write in a hard-covered notebook with green lined pages. Green is easy...

Rules such as ‘Write what you know,’ and ‘Show, don’t tell,’ while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in...

If grammar is the skeleton of expression and usage the flesh and blood, then style is the personality.

Child, to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole art and joy of words.

Always remember that writing is an alliance between author and reader. With every line we put down on the page, we need to leave room for the reader’s imagination and intellect.

In leaving the café I asked Joyce how long he had been working on Ulysses.”About five years,” he said. “But in a sense all my life.””Some of your contemporaries,” I said, “think two books a...

Can we all pause a moment to appreciate the artistry of that sentence? “Sitting casually on the floor, a guard sat…” That’s freaking art right there! Someone nominate this thing for the Hugo Award already!

Part of being a writer is defending your vision and not caving in to outside pressures.

Replace your old books with the book you’ve always wanted to write.

You cannot be a great writer in a shop where words are sold in tens and twenties.

For the vision of a novelist is both complex and specialised; complex, because behind his characters and apart from them must stand something stable to which he relates them; specialised because since he is a...

I say fuck the old advice ‘show, don’t tell.’ It’s called story TELLING for a reason, and I’ll stick to it!

I know it’s difficult in the beginning. But, listen. If you have the impulse to write, do yourself a favor, do the world a favor, and write.

For me, not knowing your theme until your finished is like using a scalpel to turn a kangaroo into Miss Universe – there will be a lot of deep cuts, and there’s a high chance...

This is the secret to mastering any discipline: as you conquer one, you’ll find it easier to tackle another.

If I ask you to think about something, you can decide not to. But if I make you feel something? Now I have your attention.

Fiction is a careful combination of observation, inspiration, and imagination.

If the story you’re telling, is the story you’re telling, you’re in deep shit.

On the whole, I think you should write biographies of those you admire and respect, and novels about human beings who you think are sadly mistaken.

Sixteen unseeing stone of disheveled male slammed into her; Robin was knocked off her feet and catapulted backwards, handbag flying, arms windmilling, towards the void beyond the lethal staircase.

I don’t just want a gripping story line. I shoot for the three dimensional literary Braille to a silent Scorsese movie

You are not an “author,” you are a writer. If your books are still selling like hotcakes ten years after your demise, THEN you’re an author.

Every once in a bestseller list, you come across a truly exceptional craftsman, a wordsmith so adept at cutting, shaping, and honing strings of words that you find yourself holding your breath while those words...

A writer’s problem does not change. He himself changes and the world he lives in changes but his problem remains the same. It is always how to write truly and, having found what is true,...

I should be writing …

You don’t create a diamond by rubbing it with fluffy bunny slippers. You need to apply pressure and heat. There are enough air-headed cheerleaders out there. We need more drill sergeants.

Good fiction makes the truth believable.