"Writing is overcoming the inertia of a sentence already committed to paper, and recognizing the feeling—a physical feeling—of a sentence that doesn't quite belong or doesn't quite sound right or doesn't quite need all the words you've assigned.  It's to understand the difference between what you're trying to say and what your sentences actually say."

"Most writers will create an outline and start pounding out a draft.  But Klinkenborg does neither.  Outlines, he says, are not only a waste of time, but they also harm our writing.  How, he wonders, can we presume to know what we're going to write before we write it?"

"Good writing is always hard work, no matter how experienced or prolific the writer."