A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos
Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
She dealt her pretty words like blades, As glittering they shone, And every one unbared a nerve Or wantoned with a bone.
Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say ‘infinitely' when you mean ‘very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
It's very important that what you do is specific to the medium in which you're doing it, and that you utilise what is specific about that medium to do the work. And if you can't think about why it should be done this way, then it doesn't need to be done.
A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end... but not necessarily in that order.
When you make music or write or create, it's really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you're writing about at the time
Interviewer: What, then, would you say is the source of most of your work? Parker: Need of money, dear.
A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
Writing is nothing more than a guided dream.