The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Writing can wreck your body. You sit there on the chair hour after hour and sweat your guts out to get a few words. – Norman Mailer, 1998

Drink and be filled up. – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2000

[G]usto thrives on freedom, and freedom in art, as in life, is the result of a discipline imposed by ourselves. Moreover, any writer overwhelmingly honest about pleasing himself is almost sure to please others. – Marianne Moore (1887–1972), lecture, 1948