'Rejection hurts because it is so personal. Your writing is you. You are naked and exposed.'

'I used to plan. I don't plan now. Preconceptions are mostly impediments. The point of the process is to let the thing be.'

'Meeting and working with hundreds of students was also new; an experience by turns humbling, saddening, stimulating.'

'At the end of Basil we are told that Ralph is 'emancipated from many of the habits which once enthralled and degraded him'. I think he has many more adventures ahead.'

'Does 'inspiration' actually quicken your breath? Perhaps the neurologists can tell us. '

Does 'inspiration' actually quicken your breath? Perhaps the neurologists can tell us. Inspiration links what I am looking at, listening to, being drawn to, to what I am about to envisage myself.

The post Sue Roe appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'It was there and then that my desire to be a translator sprang up. I wanted to gain access to those other enchanted worlds.'

It was there and then that my desire to be a translator sprang up. I wanted to gain access to those other enchanted worlds and to try to accommodate them in English.

The post Nick Caistor appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'If the avalanche of self-promotion that overwhelms my inbox leaves me cold, why should anyone else welcome self-flattery from me?'

If the avalanche of self-promotion that overwhelms my inbox daily, leaves me cold, why should I presume anyone else would welcome a flurry of self-flattery from me? I was born just before 'market' became a verb.

The post Donny O’Rourke appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'You sweated for years over this book, but your publishers have three others coming out this week, and it can't be the focus of their lives.'

You sweated for years over this book, but your publishers have three others coming out this week, and of course it can't be the focus of their lives and hopes in the way that it is yours. If you resent this, you're going to be miserable.

The post Robert Hudson appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'I managed the page proofs of my latest novel, Her Husband's Lover, as I sat at my father's deathbed, but after that I was out of contract.'

I managed the page proofs of my latest novel, Her Husband's Lover, as I sat at my father's deathbed, but after that I was out of contract, and needed to write the best book of my life to secure a new deal. I was also changing agents...

The post Julia Crouch appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.

'I'm more fascinated by the Rezia and Septimus love story than by Clarissa Dalloway's privileged past. '

I'm more fascinated by their love story than by Clarissa Dalloway's privileged past. Rezia, a twenty-four year old Italian immigrant, is the character who shows most understanding of mental illness.

The post Stephanie Norgate appeared first on The Royal Literary Fund.