When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad things you did do - well, that's memoirs.
Journalism allows it's readers to witness history. Fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.
His (the writer's) standard of fidelity to the truth should be so high that his invention, out of his experience, should produce a truer account than anything factual can be.
The most lasting reputation I have is for an almost ferocious aggressiveness, when in fact I am amiable, indulgent, affectionate, shy and rather timid at heart.
The life of a writer is tragic: the more we advance, the farther there is to go and the more there is to say, the less time there is to say it.
It is only through fiction and the dimension of the imaginary that we can learn something real about individual experience. Any other approach is bound to be general and abstract.
When the style is fully formed, if it has a sweet undersong, we call it beautiful, and the writer may do what he likes in words or syntax.
I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.
It makes a great difference in the force of a sentence whether a man be behind it or no.
Footnotes, the little dogs yapping at the heels of the text.
I like prefaces. I read them. Sometimes I do not read any further.
As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.
They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
The business of writing is one of the four or five most private things in the world.
I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience.
He claimed his modest share of the general foolishness of the human race.
There are two kinds of writers - the great ones who can give you truths, and the lesser ones, who can only give you themselves.
My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying . . . one must ruthlessly suppress everything that is not concerned with the subject. If, in the first chapter, you say there is a gun hanging on the wall, you should make quite sure that it is going to be used further on in the story.
