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for the faint of heart; Cynthia Ozick summed it up quite well when she said. "If we had to say what writing is, we would define it as an act of courage."

When we write we leave a piece of ourselves on every page, in every word we pen. I wonder if that is what Red Smith meant when he said, "There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."

Much can be learned from the advice they have left in print for fellow and future writers.
"Cut out all exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke." F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mark Twain said, "When you catch and adjective, kill it." He was also quoted to say, "The difference between the right word and the nearly right word is the same as that between lightning and the lightning bug."

"You can always write something. You can write limericks. You can write a love letter. You do something to get you in the habit of writing again, to bring back the desire." Erskine Caldwell

"Writing everyday is a way of keeping the engine running, and then something good may come out of it." T. S. Eliot

Writing is not the most lucrative of ventures for many, if not most who choose to dance with words.

"Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money." Jules Renard

"If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers." Irvin S. Cobb

What makes a good writer?

"A professional writer is an amateur that didn't quit." Richard Bach

"However great a man's natural talent may be, the art of writing cannot be learned all at once." Jean Jacques Rousseau

"In a very real sense, the writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratifications, is a curious anticlimax." Alfred Kazin

We each have our own tale to tell, our own reasons for writing. I write because I must, it is as essential to me as the air I breathe. We can learn so much from the writers that came before us.

"To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write. " Gertrude Stein

Just to add my own voice . . ."Every word I write is a beat of my heart, as long as they are someday read, I will live forever." Crystal R. Cook

Learn more about this author, Crystal Cook.
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