“Don’t be ‘a writer.’ Be writing.”   William Faulkner

September 25 is William Faulkner’s birthday. With this in mind I’m sharing a cornucopia of gems from the storied writer, whose devotion to his craft is legendary:

“It begins with a character, usually, and once he stands up on his feet and begins to move, all I do is trot along behind him with a paper and pencil trying to keep up long enough to put down what he says and does.”

“Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors, try to be better than yourself.”

“I never know what I think about something until I read what I’ve written about it.”

“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again.”

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among the creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”

“If a story is in you, it has to come out.”

“Don’t be ‘a writer.’ Be writing.” What more is there to say? Write on!

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