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The secret is that it is poetry written into prose and it is the hardest of all things to do…” from MARY HEMINGWAY,
In truly good writing no matter how many times you read it you do not know how it is done. That is because there is a mystery in all great writing and that mystery does not dis-sect out. It continues and it is always valid. Each time you re-read you see or learn something new.
The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.
Good writing is true writing. If a man is making a story up it will be true in proportion to the amount of knowledge of life that he has and how conscientious he is; so that when he makes something up it is as it would truly be.
MICE: What is the best early training for a writer? Y.C.: An unhappy childhood.
I have to write to be happy whether I get paid for it or not. But it is a hell of a disease to be born with.
I love to write. But it has never gotten any easier to do and you can’t expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do.
Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to be hurt like hell before you can write seriously.
Dostoevsky was made by being sent to Siberia. Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged.
