I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach one that writing is hard work and two that you have to give up a great deal of life your personal life to be a writer.

To be a writer does not mean to preach a truth it means to discover a truth.

A writer should have this little voice inside of you saying Tell the truth. Reveal a few secrets here.

Always speak the truth think before you speak and write it down afterwards.

A writer's job is to tell the truth.

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

When I sit at my table to write I never know what it's going to be until I'm under way. I trust in inspiration which sometimes comes and sometimes doesn't. But I don't sit back waiting for it. I work every day.

Apart from a few simple principles the sound and rhythm of English prose seem to me matters where both writers and readers should trust not so much to rules as to their ears.

A lot of time you write out of some unconscious place. I try to trust what is coming and where it wants to take me.

You never know if you're a writer. You can't trust it. If you woke up and said 'I'm a writer ' it would be gone. You wouldn't see anything for miles - even the dust would be running away.