I only write when I am inspired. Fortunately I am inspired at 9 o'clock every morning.

Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

Only write from your own passion, your own truth. That's the only thing you really know about, and anything else leads you away from the pulse.

I write what I like

There was something I wanted to feel, and I felt it only when I was writing.

Write about what really interests you, whether it is real things or imaginary things, and nothing else.

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste.

I write because I cannot NOT write.

I only write first editions.

A good writer is an expert on nothing except himself. And on that subject, if he is wise, he holds his tongue. Some of you may wonder why I am reluctant to submit to interviews on television and radio and in the press. The answer is that nothing that I write is authentic. It is the stuff of dreams, not reality. Yet I am treated by the media as though I wrote espionage handbooks.

But isn't it true that an author can write only about himself?

Soon after you confront the matter of preserving your identity, another question will occur to you: “Who am I writing for?” It’s a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience — every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new. Don’t worry about whether the reader will “get it” if you indulge a sudden impulse for humor. If it amuses you in the act of writing, put it in. (It can always be taken out, but only you can put it in.) You are writing primarily to please yourself, and if you go about it with enjoyment you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for. If you lose the dullards back in the dust, you don’t want them anyway.