If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills yo

The problem with writing about religion is that you run the risk of offending sincerely religious people, and then they come after you with machetes

The very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice

I do not literally paint that table, but the emotion it produces upon me

Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing

The more we write the less we die

The mystery of writing advertisements consists mainly in saying in a few plain words exactly what it is desired to say, precisely as it would be written in a letter or told to an acquaintance

If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves