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Video: Why you should hire an American writer.

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.

Michael Burke

The first chapter sells the book; the last chapter sells the next book.

Mickey Spillane

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

Robert A. Heinlein

Biography should be written by an acute enemy.

Arthur Balfour

Reading and weeping opens the door to one’s heart, but writing and weeping opens the window to one’s soul.

M. K. Simmons

The character that lasts is an ordinary guy with some extraordinary qualities.

Raymond Chandler

It’s an accepted fact that all writers are crazy; even the normal ones are weird.

William Goldman

Don’t annoy an author, you’ll end up in their book and you won’t look good.

Lawrence Wray

No writer has ever yet been known to hang himself as long as he had another chapter left.

Thomas Wolfe

Ever heard of a carpenter not going to work because he has “carpenter’s block”? If a writer can’t write, it’s because he doesn’t really want to, he isn’t ready to get it on paper or he’s just plain lazy.

Chet Cunningham

Read a thousand books and your words will flow like a river.

Lisa See

I have a structured songwriting process. I start with the music and try to come up with musical ideas, then the melody, then the hook, and the lyrics come last.

John Legend

If you wait for inspiration to write, you’re not a writer. You’re a waiter.

Dan Poynter

The road to ignorance is paved with good editors.

George Bernard Shaw

Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.

Harlan Ellison

You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.

Stephen Leigh

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.

Orson Scott Card

What I loved most about calling myself a reporter was that it gave me an excuse to show up anyplace.

Jeanette Walls

I haven’t got 10 rules that guarantee success, though I promise I’d share them if I did. The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.

J.K. Rowling

Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice.