Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an
apprentice and studies the most. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out the window.
— William Faulkner

Becoming the reader is the essence of becoming a writer.
— John O'Hara

There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.
— Doris Lessing

Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young.
— W. Somerset Maugham

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
— Khalil Gibran

However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing
cannot be learnt all at once.
— Jean Jacques Rousseau

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader — not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.
— E.L. Doctorow
 
Write what you care about and understand. Writers should
never try to outguess the marketplace in search of a saleable idea; the simple truth is that all good books will eventually find a
publisher if the writer tries hard enough, and a central secret
to writing a good book is to write on that people like
you will enjoy.
— Richard North Patterson

Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear.
— Ezra Pound