From Mark Strand's "On Becoming a Poet" in The Making of a Poem, an idea for what a poem may be, which I think also applies to fiction: "A poem may be ... the …
Writing Quotes and Other Literary Fun
If You Tell the Truth
Stumbled across this Mark Twain quote as I'm going through revisions to a new novel I hope to get to my editor tomorrow: "If you tell the truth, you don't have …
Calling loudly, "J.D. Salinger"
In 1941, J.D. Salinger had seven stories rejected by The New Yorker. Apparently undaunted, he submitted an eighth the same year, "Slight Rebellion off Madison," …
You Must Write It
Thought I'd start the new year with a very hopeful quote, from Toni Morrison: If there is a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then …
Natural Writers
I'm reading Graham Swift's Making an Elephant: Writing from Within (if you've never read Swift, go get a copy of Last Orders this minute and do so!) and came …
The Single Best Piece of Advice I've Gotten as a Writer
Several years ago, I had the great (okay, and somewhat terrifying) experience of studying with Tim O'Brien at the Sewanee Writers' Conference. He gave our …
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George Eliot on Reaching for your Dreams
"It is never too late to be what you might have been." - George Eliot …
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Erma Bombeck on Snow-Blindness
"To say, 'Well, I write when I really get into it' is a bunch of bull. Put the paper in the typewriter, stare at it a long time, get snow-blindness if you have …
W.H. Auden on Work Habits
Get up very early and get going at once, in fact, work first and wash afterwards." - W.H. Auden …
Chekhov on Failure and Persistence
"...you must at once and for all give up being worried about successes and failures. Don't let that concern you. It's your duty to go on working steadily day by …
