Writing advice from the best in the business

Write about what you're afraid of.

If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write

If you want to be a writer, you have to write

It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you can edit brilliantly

Don't say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream

When in doubt, have two guys come through the door with guns

The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in

Writing is like really hard homework

Writing is a socially accepted form of schizophrenia

Never use two words when one will suffice

Keep it simple - Tell the damned story

Be a sadist - make awful things happen to your protagonist

Writing is like driving at night in the fog

The hardest part about writing is writing

Cut your story to the bone

Characters should be real, not caricatures

The only rule is to write what you think is interesting

You can't wait for imagination - you have to go after it with a club

A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit

Make your fiction as vivid as a memory

Don't worry whether your writing makes sense - just pour the words on the page

The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.

You can always edit a bad page, but you can never edit a blank page

The role of a writer is to say what others are unable to say

To be a writer you need to read a lot and write a lot

Don't take anyone's writing advice too seriously

There is nothing to writing except to sit at a typewriter and bleed

Write the book you want to read

A good writer needs an in-built shit-detector

Your in tuition knows what to write, so get out of the way

The difference between the almost right word and the write word is huge

Write with the door closed, and rewrite with the door open

You do not need to get writing right the first time, unlike a brain surgeon

Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broke glass

Don't tell me about your character, let him speak

Only compare yourself to the writer you were yesterday

The first thing to learn in writing is to write tight

Easy reading is damn hard writing

Don't get it right, just get it written

Start writing no matter what - the water does not flow until the faucet is turned on