Don’t say the
old lady screamed.
Bring her in and
let her scream.

—Mark Twain

The good artist
believes that nobody
is good enough to give
him advice. He has
supreme vanity.
No matter how much
he admires the old
writer, he wants
to beat him.

―William Faulkner

It’s a great lesson
about not being
too precious about
your writing. . . .
You can’t be that kid 
standing at the top of
the waterslide,
overthinking it. . . .
You have to let people
see what you wrote.
―Tina Fey

I write to give myself strength.
I write to be the characters
I am not. I write to explore all
of the things I am afraid of.

—Joss Whedon

Once when I was flying to Dallas with Zig Ziglar, he asked if I ever received letters from people thanking me. When I acknowledged that I did, he asked, “When you get those letters, what do people thank you for?” I had never really thought about that before, but the answer was clear. People almost always said thanks for a book I had written or some other resource I had provided. 
“It’s the same for me,” Zig said. “Isn’t that interesting? You and I are known for being speakers, but that’s not what prompts people to write.”

—John Maxwell