You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not. Don’t you yourself like or dislike writers mainly for what they choose to show or make you think about? Did you ever admire an empty-headed writer for his or her mastery of the language? No.” – Kurt Vonnegut

“To write well about the elegant world you have to know it and experience it to the depths of your being … what matters is not whether you love it or hate it, but only to be quite clear about your position regarding it.” – Italo Calvino

“As for discipline – it’s important, but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take only discipline, but also self-forgiveness. The other thing to realize is that all writers think they suck.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.” – Joan Didion

“Pay no attention to the criticism of men who have never themselves written a notable work.” – Ezra Pound