Ideas Come To People Who Are Receptive

One Thing That Helps Is To Give Myself Permission To Write Badly. I Tell Myself That I'm Going To Do My Five Or 10 Pages No Matter What, And That I Can Always Tear Them Up The Following Morning If I Want. I'll Have Lost Nothing-writing And Tearing Up Five Pages Would Leave Me No Further Behind Than If I Took The Day Off.

Why On Earth Should I Care Whether People Read Me With Their Eyes Or Their Ears?

As A Friend Of Mine, Herself A Writer, Says, 'people Who Spend The Most Meaningful Hours Of Their Lives In The Exclusive Company Of Imaginary People Are Apt To Be A Little Strange'

Back Then, Before It Became Clear That Democracy Was Best Served By A Drunken Electorate, The Bars In New York City Were Required To Close On Election Day.

The Short Story, I Should Point Out, Is Perforce A Labor Of Love In Today's Literary World; There's Precious Little Economic Incentive To Write One.