The Benjamin Franklin Effect: The Surprising Psychology of How to Handle Haters

“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.”

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Herman Melville on Writing and His Daily Routine

“A book in a man’s brain is better off than a book bound in calf — at any rate it is safer from criticism.”

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Nobel Laureate Alice Munro on the Secret of a Great Story

“A story … has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you.”

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Samuel Johnson on Writing and Creative Doggedness

“Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.”

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Charles Bukowski on Writing and His Crazy Daily Routine

“Writing is like going to bed with a beautiful woman and afterwards she gets up, goes to her purse and gives me a handful of money.”

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