Writers on writing

You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don't labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.
~ Horace ~

A writer and nothing else; a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right.
~ John K. Hutchens ~

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
~ Samuel Johnson ~

Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure. Emotion is easily transferred from the writer to the reader.
~ Joseph Joubert ~

The cure for writers cramp is writer's block.
~ Inigo de Leon ~

The shelf life of the modern hardback writer is somewhere between the milk and the yogurt.
~ John Mortimer ~

To be a good diarist, one must have a snouty, sneaky mind.
~ Harold Nicolson ~

Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them.
~ Flannery O'Connor ~

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.
~ Mary Heaton Vorse ~

I love being a writer, what I can't stand is the paperwork.
~ Peter De Vries ~