The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

The key to being a wonderful writer is not to write. You just get out of the way, leave room for God to walk in the room, and when I write something that I know is right, I get on my knees and say, 'Thank You.

The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.

And you who wish to represent by words the form of man and all the aspects of his membrification, relinquish that idea. For the more minutely you describe the more you will confine the mind of the reader, and the more you will keep him from the knowledge of the thing described. And so it is necessary to draw and to describe.

Social media is a giant distraction to the ultimate aim, which is honing your craft as a songwriter. There are people who are exceptional at it, however, and if you can do both things, then that's fantastic, but if you are a writer, the time is better spent on a clever lyric than a clever tweet.