Toni Morrison said, when she started writing, “It was as though I had nothing left but my imagination. I wrote like someone with a dirty habit. Secretly. Compulsively. Slyly.”

Advice for Aspiring Writers from Alice Munro, a woman about whom Cynthia Ozick wrote, “She is our Chekhov, and is going to outlast most of her contemporaries.”

Michelangelo was known to complain frequently when painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. And even though we all feel like whining every now and again, we must still create our masterpieces.

Ilene Beckerman didn’t begin her writing career until the age of 60, and even then, she became a published author almost by accident.