“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it”

Alfred Hitchcock on story plot

“Sometimes you just have to kill your babies”

Steven King on story revision

“No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence or whose attitude is patronizing”

E. B. White on wrting

“You ought never to use an unfamiliar word unless you’ve had tosearch for it to express a delicate shade–where in effect you have recreated it. This is a damn good prose rule I think…. Exceptions: (a) need to avoid repetition (b) need of rhythm (c) etc.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald in a letter to a friend

“If something strikes you as wrong on the first reading, it is wrong, and a fix is needed, not a second reading.”

Gardner Botsford On writing and editing.

“Read at the level at which you want to write.  Rading is the nourishment that feeds the kind of writing you want to do.  If what you erally love is to read is “y”, it might be hard for you to write”x”.

Jennifer Egan’s Wisdom for Writers-Why We Write, edited by Meredith Maran.