on writing

There's only one person who needs a glass of water oftener than a small child tucked in for the night, and that's a writer sitting down to write.  ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

Loafing is the most productive part of a writer's life.  ~James Norman Hall

The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof shit detector.  This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it.  ~Ernest Hemingway, interview in Paris Review, Spring 1958