It’s hell writing and it’s hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written.

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.

You can never correct your work well until you have forgotten it.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.

Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.

The writer is more concerned to know than to judge.

Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.