“I’d rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate.”

– George Burns

“The middle of every successful project looks like a disaster.”

– R.M. Kanton

“. . . out of the mountains that you write some molehills will be published.”

– Brenda Ueland (1891 – 1985) If You Want to Write

“An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations.”

– Charles de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755)

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

– Jack London

“Never hope more than you work.”
– Beryl Markham quoting her father in West with the Night

“Show me your original face before you were born.” – Zen Koan

“What no wife [or husband] of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he’s staring out a window.”

– Burton Rascoe

“Structure is everything.”

– Natalie Goldberg