A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. – Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947

A writer and nothing else: a man alone in a room with the English language, trying to get human feelings right. – John K. Hutchens, New York Herald Tribune, 1961 September 10th

Let’s hope the institution of marriage survives its detractors, for without it there would be no more adultery and without adultery two thirds of our novelists would stand in line for unemployment checks. – Peter S. Prescott