We read books to find out who we are.

Ursula K. Le Guin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin

My purpose is to entertain myself first and other people second.

John D. Macdonald

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._MacDonald

A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.

Kenneth Tynan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Tynan

The most helpful quality a writer can cultivate is self-confidence – arrogance if you can manage it. You write to impose yourself on the world, and you have to believe in your own ability when the world shows no sign of agreeing with you.

Hilary Mantel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Mantel

It’s never going to be very mainstream. One reason is that poetry requires concentration, both on the part of the writer and the reader. But it’s kind of unkillable, poetry. It’s our most ancient art form and I think it’s more relevant today than ever because it is one person saying what they really believe.

Simon Armitage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Armitage

A good style should show no sign of effort. What is written should seem a happy accident.

W. Somerset Maugham

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham

The book trade is a spiritual barometer of a nation’s well-being.

John Buchan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Buchan

Someone told the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon that about 90% of all S.F. was crud. Sturgeon responded, “90% of anything is crud!”

This is now known as Sturgeon’s Law.

Theodore Sturgeon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Sturgeon

Talent is long patience.

Gustav Flaubert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Flaubert

Failure is just a resting place. It is an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.

Henry Ford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford