This is a good list of quotes, but I have to make a remark on the Asimov-quote. I see this quote everywhere, and as it stands it makes no sense. If he had six minutes to live, he would not have time to get to his typewriter to continue typing after speaking to the doctor. And indeed, what doctor would ever give such an exact time of death?

No, the truth is of course that he said six months - and remarked several times that it bothered him that it was widely quoted as minutes.

So, in light of the dismay he felt about this misquote and in the interest of spreading his actual words, here is his recounting of it (found in Asimov Laughs Again, 1992, p.147):

I was once being interviewed by Barbara Walters in three segments, all at once, though they were to be run on three separate days.
In between two of the segments, she asked me how many books I had written, and I told her.    She said, "Don't you ever want to do anything but write?"
"No," I said.
"Don't you want to go hunting? Fishing? Dancing? Hiking?"
And I said, "No! No! No! and No!"
She said, "But what would you do if the doctor gave you only six months to live?"
I said, "Type faster."

This seems to be the philosophy he lived by - at the end of his life he was still writing, having completed over 500 books.

"I try to leave out the parts that people skip."

To true and necessary, as a muscian this is a commandment for me.

I had never heard that Faulkner quote (yeah, yeah I know....). All I can say is wow, that is a mind blowing thought. Thanks for this!

I am best friends with a writer and it's just amazing. I love the way writers just transform everything they see into something we can now relate to but have never experienced before with those eyes.  Just wonderful!

You might enjoy "The Secret Miracle: The Novelists Handbook" edited by Daniel Alarcon.  Thirty or forty novelists are asked questions about writing and their responses are collected.  It's a publication of 826 National, the writing group in San Fran, LA, NYC etc.  New in paperback.

This is great... I'm not a writer.  But I love hearing writers talk about how/why/when they write.  I enjoy it (authors on their craft) more than any other artist talking about their respective art forms.  In fact, the only Stephen King book I have read was the one he wrote on his writing.  Thanks for the post!

These are great quotes not seen all the time.  Stephen King's shows some self-irony and good grace.  I love his book on writing, and since I read it I've had new respect for him as a person and writer.  I'm a writer too but my day job is a <a href="http://www.ducktoes.com.">computer repair</a> in Calgary.  I've just finished a novel.

“Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds”

-Douglas Adams

Another great quote that would go well on this page is:

"There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private and where food can be poked in to him with a stick." - Robert Heinlein

Your all pathetic :)

I have to say that his comment about writing being discovering what you believe is so true.  So many times I don't know what I really feel about a topic until I start writing about it.  Then I have to examine the details, the whys and the whats of what I think.  Then I discover what I believe to be true.

Great quotes! Thanks for sharing!