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The most difficult and complicated part of the writing process is the beginning.

One tends to write beyond what's needed.

At the beginning, I experienced writing as a sort of constraint. Starting so young as a writer is pitiable: it's beyond your powers; you have to lay bare things that are very heavy, and you don't have the means for that.

At the most basic level, I appreciate writers who have something to say.

I don't pare down much. I write the beginning of a story in a notebook and it comes out very close to what it will be in the end. There is not much deliberateness about it.

I think a lot of writers are tempted to add complexity by over-complicating things, but always remember that most natural rules/laws are, at their core, simple. Start simple, and build from there, or you risk getting yourself and your readers tangled.

Writing requires the concentration of the writer, demands that nothing else be done except that.

Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

Great writing is great writing. It's as simple as all that.

There's a practical problem about time and energy, and a more subtle problem of what it does to a writer's head, to continually analyze why they write, where it all comes from, where it's going to.