Popular success is a palace built for a writer by publishers, journalists, admirers, and professional reputation makers, in which a silent army of te… - Cyril Connolly

Failure on the other hand is infectious. The world is full of charming failures (for all charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others) and unless the writer is quite ruthless with these amiable footlers, they will drag him down with them.

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence. Obvious though this should be, how few writers will admit it, or having drawn the conclusion, will be prepared to lay aside the piece of iridescent mediocrity on which they have embarked! Writers always hope that their next book is going to be their best, and will not acknowledge that they are prevented by their present way of life from ever creating anything different.

Never will I make that extra effort to live according to reality which alone makes good writing possible: hence the manic-depressiveness of my style, — which is either bright, cruel and superficial; or pessimistic; moth-eaten with self-pity