Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all. – Franklin P. Adams, Half a Loaf, 1927

It is possible to regard Norman Mailer as one of the prices we pay for widespread literacy. – Richard Gilman, “Why Mailer Wants to be President,” in The New Republic, 1964 Fe

Our passions shape our books; repose writes them in the intervals. – Proust, The Past Recaptured, 1927

Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. – George Orwell, “Why I Write,” 1947 (Thanks, Jennifer)