Then I said something. I said, Suppose, just suppose, nothing had ever happened. Suppose this was for the first time. Just suppose. It doesn’t hurt to suppose. Say none of the other had ever happened. You know what I mean? Then what? I said.
You have to have been in love to write poetry.
I’m moving to Nevada. Either there or kill myself.
A man can go along obeying all the rules and then it don’t matter a damn anymore.
I’ve done as many as 20 or 30 drafts of a story. Never less than 10 or 12 drafts.
I’m always learning something. Learning never ends.
I am too nervous to eat pie.
Get in, get out. Don’t linger. Go on.
It’s strange. You never start out life with the intention of becoming a bankrupt or an alcoholic or a cheat and a thief. Or a liar.
Booze takes a lot of time and effort if you’re going to do a good job with it.
Writers will be judged by what they write.
Remember Haydn’s 104 symphonies. Not all of them were great. But there were 104 of them.
My life is going to change. I feel it.
Anyone can express himself or herself, but what writers and poets want to do in their work, more than simply express themselves, is communicate.
A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.
My circumstances of unrelieved responsibility and permanent distraction necessitated the short story form.
A great danger, or at least a great temptation, for many writers is to become too autobiographical in their approach to their fiction. A little autobiography and a lot of imagination are best.
Don’t complain, don’t explain.
All of us, all of us, all of us trying to save our immortal souls, some ways seemingly more round about and mysterious than others. We are having a good time here. But hope all will be revealed soon.
Isak Dinesen said that she wrote a little every day, without hope and without despair. I like that.