Writers come in two principal categories -- those who are overtly insecure and those who are covertly insecure.

Writing is selection. Just to start a piece of writing you have to choose one word and only one from more than a million in the language. Now keep going. What is your next word?

I can't stand a sentence until it sounds right.

Writing is a suspension of life in order to re-create life

A writer has to have some kind of compulsive drive to do his work. If you don't have it, you'd better find another kind of work, because it's the only compulsion that will drive you through the psychological nightmares of writing.