Writers’ Insights on Writing

“Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil - but there is no way around them,” Isaac Asimov.

“It took me fifteen years to discover I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous,” Robert Benchley.

“Beware of self-indulgence. The romance surrounding the writing profession carries several myths: that one must suffer in order to be creative; that one must be cantankerous and objectionable in order to be bright; that ego is paramount over skill; that one can rise to a level from which one can tell the reader to go to hell. These myths, if believed, can ruin you. If you believe you can make a living as a writer, you already have enough ego,” David Brin

“If you write one story, it may be bad; if you write a hundred, you have the odds in your favor,” Edgar Rice Burroughs

“My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying, “Anton Chekhov.

“Put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it,” Colette.