I do not like to write - I like to have written.

~Gloria Steinem (This is my sentiment, exactly!)

I try to leave out the parts that people skip. ~Elmore Leonard

A metaphor is like a simile. ~Author Unknown

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein. ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the other one. ~Baltasar Gracián

Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say. ~Sharon O'Brien

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter. ~James Michener

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~William Wordsworth

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead. ~Gene Fowler

What no wife of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he's staring out of the window. ~Burton Rascoe

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

And finally--

Do not put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a
great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague.
~William Safire, "Great Rules of Writing"

Hope you're busy writing during National Novel Writing Month! It's still not too late to start, but you must be finished by November 30th.

~ Roxanne Sherwood