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One of the problems of writing is that anyone who commits themselves to that process has to believe that they're good.

When you combine something to say with the skill to say it properly, then you've got a good writer.

You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.

The thing about good writing is it has a music to it.

I can't write; I don't think I'm even particularly good at telling a writer what's good or what's missing. So, actually having someone who can do that is a godsend.

One of the odd things about being a writer is that you never reach a point of certainty, a point of mastery where you can say, 'Right. Now I understand how this is done.'

Nothing you write, if you hope to be good, will ever come out as you first hoped.

My father told us all the time: to become a good writer takes writing. Because the more you do it, the better you get at it. It's like bull-riding. You can't do it once, you know. You've got to practice it and practice it.

Good writers are often excellent at a hundred other things, but writing promises a greater latitude for the ego.

Writing is one of the few activities where quantity will inevitably make quality. The more you write, the better you're going to get at it.