“Writers are not just people who sit down and write. They hazard themselves. Every time you compose a book your composition of yourself is at stake.” ~ E. L. Doctorow

“Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill.” ~ Edmund Morrison

“Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.” ~ Elie Wiesel

“A book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then.” ~ C.S. Lewis

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” ~ Flaubert

“You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.” ~ Horace

“Experience is an author’s most valuable asset; experience is the thing that puts the muscle and the breath and the warm blood into the book he writes.” ~ Mark Twain

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” ~ Orson Scott Card

“Talent is helpful in writing, but guts are absolutely essential.” ~ Jessamyn West

“What I like in a good author isn’t what he says, but what he whispers.” ~ Logan Pearsall Smith