our finest writing will certainly come from what is unregenerate in ourselves. It will come from the part that is obdurate, unbanishable, immune to education, springing up like grass.

To gain the book, one must give up all hope for the book. It is the only way the book can get written.

How we learn is what we learn.

Daily life is always extraordinary when rendered precisely.

Envy is one of the scorpions of the mind, often having little to do with the objective, external world.

The antidote to envy is one's own work. Always one's own work. Not the thinking about it. Not the assessing of it. But the doing of it. The answers you want can come only from the work itself.

Fiction structures an experience for the reader to live through. ... That is why people read: to have experiences.

Successful writers are not the ones who write the best sentences. They are the ones who keep writing. They are the ones who discover what is most important and strangest and most pleasurable in themselves, and keep believing in the value of their work, despite the difficulties.

Writing teaches writing. Your writing will teach you how to write if you work hard enough and have enough faith.