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

A writer should care about one thing - the language. To write well - that is his duty. That is his only duty.

Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.

So long as readers keep reading and my publishers keep publishing, I plan to keep on writing. I'd have to be an idiot to be burnt-out in this job.

I feel like you just need to keep writing until the writing itself just begins to take shape.

A writer has to live with a sense of honor.

I am a writer, and the duty of a writer is not only to furnish pleasant pursuits for the mind and taste: he will be held accountable if things useful to the soul are not disseminated by his works and if nothing remains after him as a precept for mankind.

My only job is to write in such a way that the reader gets a new handle on humanity.

Writing is a discipline: it's almost all about holding back.

This is not necessarily the answer people want, but ultimately, I think writing is an amoral process. Your ultimate responsibility is to the truth of the story you're trying to tell.