We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.

Evolution advances, not by a priori design, but by the selection of what works best out of whatever choices offer. We are the products…

— George Wald

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

It's like the query letter problem that I just mentioned, magnified a hundredfold. You might be good at telling a story, but that doesn't…

— Patrick Rothfuss

“It’s easy to see what to do once it’s already been done. The difficult time is before it’s to be done, and while you’re…

— Jarod Kintz

I believe there's a platonic ideal for every book that is written, like there's the perfect version of the book somewhere in the ether,…

— Sheila Heti

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

Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakespeare, and trash will remain.

— Charles Caleb Colton

Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love…

— Amos Bronson Alcott

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

“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

“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