A steady stream of author interviews featured in The Paris Review fills my twitter feed. I like to breeze through them, sometimes when I’m feeling glued, or just because they’re really good. This quote caught my eye and led me to an interview with author Erskine Caldwell. If you like, here are a few more quotes by Caldwell from the longer version.

“You have an idea to start with, otherwise you wouldn’t sit down at your typewriter. Whatever this idea is, that’s the solid thing you want to work with. You can’t wait for inspiration because it may never come.”

“It’s not what you write, it’s how you write it. Whether you want to base a work on facts or on imagination does not really matter. You can be a good writer in either field, or both. The use of words is what makes writing, and in the end it’s how well you do it that’s going to count.”

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

Happy Friday.