A writer who attempts to live on the manufacture of his…

To write for a living, according to Mr. Whipple, is coquetting with starvation.

— Francis Alexander Durivage

“This story was a story of our time. And a writer's attempts not to fathom his time amount but to sounding his mind in…

— Louis Zukofsky

Imagination continually frustrates tradition; that is its function.

— Jules Feiffer

The familiar writer is apt to be his own satirist. Out of his own mouth is he judged.

— Edwin Percy Whipple

There is a natural disposition with us to judge an author's personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to…

— Edwin Percy Whipple

A man of letters is often a man with two natures,--one a book nature, the other a human nature. These often clash sadly.

— Edwin Percy Whipple

So there's a lot of people tied into believing that the traditional response to the authorship question. In terms of actors, some people get…

— Mark Rylance

Authorship has never been with me a matter of choice. I have not done it for amusement, or for money, or for fame, or…

— Harriet Martineau

Authorship, according to the spirit in which it is pursued, is an infancy, a pastime, a labor, a handicraft, an art, a science, or…

— August Wilhelm Von Schlegel

Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities. [Lat., Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam Viribus.]

— Horace

“Every article and review and book that I have ever published has constituted an appeal to the person or persons to whom I should…

— Christopher Hitchens

“If there's a will, there's a way! I feel larger than LIFE--and look up to the stars who shine down on me and have…

— Donna Scrima-Black

The writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the top of…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself…

— Jean de la Bruyere

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul, and taste.

— Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon