Writers on Writing

“You still have to make something really, really good. That’s the nut of it all. And the more time you spend ‘cultivating relationships,’ the less time you spend creating meaningful art. One of those things will do more for you than the other.”
-Stephen Elliott

“Rewrite everything. Even letters.”-James McBride

"Never be ashamed of your subject, and of your passion for your subject."-Joyce Carol Oates 

“Get a kitchen timer. Writers are ingenious at redefining what qualifies as doing work (‘If I just spend this morning cleaning my desk…’). A kitchen timer tolerates no such nonsense. Set yourself a daily writing quota (as little as a half hour is fine at first), set the clock and get to work.”-Ben Dolnick

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.-Zadie Smith

"If writers haven't taken leave of their senses, they also want to stay in touch with us, they want to carry news from their world to ours."-Raymond Carver

Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way — although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.-Kurt Vonnegut

"Don't be discouraged! Don't cast sidelong glances a, and compare yourself to others among your peers! (Writing is not a race. No one really "Wins." The satisfaction is in the effort, and rarely in the consequent rewards, if there are any.) And again. write your heart out."
-Joyce Carol Oates