Telling someone to be confident in the abstract is not going to make it easier for the unconfident writer to actually get herself or himself to the point of being able to put in the upsetting stuff.

I think people feel for a long time that they ought to know how to write a novel in two drafts.

Whoever would write books? It's suffering as well as greatly satisfying. And certainly there's suffering in the sense that you don't know for a long time how to do it.

We still have so many cultures in which people are imprisoned and whipped and killed for writing what they think.

In many cultures, women are sometimes literally kept from learning to read or from going to school.

There's the belief that we can't be smart enough to write. And certainly censorship of women, too.

You have to write fiction that mirrors the actual world, which has people of all sorts in it.

I heard a white writer say, 'Oh, I'd never put black people in my writing, I'm afraid I would offend someone by doing it wrong.' I can't bear that!

There is a lot of censorship about writing that's exerted from all directions, from families or governments and society, even the fear of being offensive in some way.

Little children are all writers.

I love it when people can help me with my work, so I do show it.

... it's a bad sign when someone drinks a lot and doesn't laugh.

Sinful pleasure can ruin our appetite for the things of God.

I will just think, why am I singing? Then I will know everything I need to know about what I'm feeling.

An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment...

Sometimes our best action result in things that are most regrettable.

What can everyone do? Praise and blame. This is human virtue, this is human madness.

The women of the United States are nothing but brood sows, having sons to be put into the army and made into fertilizer.

Of all the animals which fly in the air, walk on the land, or swim in the sea, from Paris to Peru, from Japan to Rome, the most foolish animal in my opinion is man.

You don't need an introduction to succeed in life. You need to have good work. Work hard. Believe in yourself

People are buying only one thing from you: the way the engagement (hiring you, working with you, dating you, using your product or service, learning from you) makes them feel.