Juan Ramon Jimenez: "If they give you..."

"If they give you ruled paper,
write the other way."

- Juan Ramon Jimenez, Spanish poet

Ray Bradbury: "There is more than one way..."

"There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. ... In sum, do not insult me with the beheadings, finger-choppings or the lung-deflations you plan for my works. I need my head to shake or nod, my hand to wave or make into a fist, my lungs to shout or whisper with. I will not go gently onto a shelf, degutted, to become a non-book."

- Ray Bradbury, a personal note on censorship in his Coda to Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury: "The good writers..."

"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rap her and leave her for the flies."

- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Maurice Sendak: "Oh, there's so many..."

–Maurice Sendak, (06/10/1928 - 05/08/2012) beloved children's book author of Where the Wild Things Are (and many others)

Jan Karon: "My work is awfully..."

"My work is awfully labored just now. Sometimes it has the most wonderful life of its own, it fairly pulls me along... At other times, it drags and mopes, so that I despair of ever writing another word... I've found that if one keeps pushing along during the mopes, out will flash the most exhilarating thought or idea - and then, one is off again, and hold on to your hat!"

—Jan Karon, A Light in the Window, Cynthia describing her writing

Stephen Karam: "Any time you try..."

"Any time you try to put the truth on paper, you get a form of fiction."

—Stephen Karam, character of Gloria in Sons of the Prophet

Stephen King: "There are certain things..."

“There are certain things I do if I sit down to write. I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning. I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, you’re going to be dreaming soon.”

—Stephen King (on writing) from Lisa Rogak, Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King

Matthew Cody: "We are such a..."

"We are such a funny race, humans. Compelled to scratch our lives out in ink, on paper or rock. Whether it's a limestone wall or the pulp pages of a comic book, I suspect it's hard-wired in our DNA — the urge to record our lives."

—Matthew Cody, Powerless (p235)

Patrick Pacheco: "Until that twelfth of..."

"Until that twelfth of never, what the world does have is art. Art that says, as it does in this musical, that 'In the middle of your life anything can happen.' Art that says that love is the greatest journey that heaven can allow. Art that says that while the pain of loss is ineffable and unending, the beauty of music can give voice to that pain and even redeem it."

- Patrick Pacheco, in the liner notes of the DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY cast album

Laura Munson: "I write to shine..."

“I write to shine a light on an otherwise dim or even pitch-black corner, to provide relief for myself and others."

—Laura Munson, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is

Lev Grossman: "There were a couple..."

"There were a couple of years when I could enjoy blowing off a workday and going bird-watching, followed by some years in which I came to realize that because my purpose on earth seems to be to write novels, I am actually freer when I'm chained to a project: freer from guilt anxiety, boredom, anger, purposelessness."

—Lev Grossman, from Jonathan Franzen. The Wide Shot, Time Magazine

Julia Cameron: "I want time to..."

"I want time to walk, not run.  I'd go so far as to say I want time to dawdle."

—Julia Cameron, The Creative Life

Julia Cameron: "I feel like writing..."

"I feel like writing, but I am afraid I have lost my voice."

—Julia Cameron, The Creative Life