If You Have Writer's Block, Maybe You Should Stop Lying

* "The self-honesty required here isn’t a one-time thing, it’s an ongoing process.* You may find that doing the things you once did is no longer congruent with your inner climate. This gives you, roughly, two choices—either you flow with who you’ve actually become, or you slowly descend into a hollow parody of what you once were."

* "Flip over the rock in your mind, type about the beetles."

* "[Writing] should feel like work rather than labor."

* "I find that people often believe they have a writing technique problem, when, actually, what they have is a sincerity problem."

* "Sometimes, to be a resident of polite society, you have to lie, and this feels unpleasant for a moment but is usually bearable. But lying to an empty page alone in a room feels awful."

* "And if you can’t even type it—forget about publishing it, we’re just talking about the initial keyboard action—that means that you don’t want to know yourself."