Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and t...

Once you've read Anna Karenina, Bleak House, The Sound and the Fury, To Kill a Mockingbirdand A Wrinkle in Time, you understand that there is really no reason to ever write another novel. Except that each writer brings to the table, if she will let herself, something that no one else in the history of time has ever had. And that is herself, her own personality, her own voice.

Anna Quindlen • Anna Quindlen's Commencement Address at Villanova

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"If we are to be original thinkers, develop an honest style, write something sticky, that leaves a mark, we can't rely on imitation, or even competition. We can only rely on our own stunted, strange, and racing minds." — Stephanie Danler

learning how to write was very much like learning how to live: it all begins by listening to your inner voice and honoring it.

Living is as much a craft as is writing. There are rules and frameworks one can follow, but ultimately, one must define and cultivate one’s own style.

Ashley Zhang • Surrender control over your stories

But nothing important, or meaningful, or beautiful, or interesting, or great ever came out of imitations. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

This is more difficult, because there is no zeitgeist to read, no template to follow, no mask to wear. Set aside what... See more

Ashley Zhang • Surrender control over your stories

Anna Quindlen • 1999 Mount Holyoke Commencement Speech