The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves. E.M. Forster
I write entirely to find out what I'm thinking, what I'm looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear. Joan Didion
“I never see my bad guys as simply bad. They want pretty much the same thing that you and I want: they want to be happy.” Elmore Leonard
Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader--not the fact that it's raining, but the feeling of being rained upon. E.L. Doctorow
"It was like removing layers of crumpled brown paper from an awkwardly shaped parcel, and revealing the attractive present, which it contained." Diana Athill (on editing, from her memoir Stet)