You Bring Up Your Children

Salinger Is Such A Terrific Writer; He Did So Many Great Things. He Is One Of Those Writers That I Still Reread, Simply Because He Makes Me See The Possibilities And Makes Me Feel Like Writing. There Are Certain Writers Who Put You In The Mood To Write. In The Way A Whiff Of A Cigar Will Bring Back Memories Of A Ballgame On A Saturday Afternoon, Reading Salinger Makes Me Want To Get To The Typewriter.

It Doesn't Matter How Big The Body, It's What You Do With It.

When People Say They Write For Themselves, That's Probably What They Do. I Will Admit That I Don't Write For Myself; I Write To Be Read. I've Got The Reader In My Mind All The Time.

A Terrific Sadness Swept Over Jerry. As If Somebody Had Died. The Way He Felt Standing In The Cemetry That Day They Buried His Mother. And Nothing You Could Do About It.

When You Get The Ideas, That's A Thrill; When You're Writing The Book And It's Corning Out Well, That's A Thrill; When You Finish It And Other People Read It, That's A Thrill. There Are Going To Be Reviews, Of Course; Not Everyone's Going To Love It. You Feel Sort Of Naked And Vulnerable In A Way. That's Just A Minor Part Of The Process, Really. If You Can't Take That Part, You Shouldn't Be In The Business. But There Are So Many Joys To Writing.