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| "You can approach
the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair
-- the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your
mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched
and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You
can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want
to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me
say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.
"I'm not asking you to come reverently or unquestioningly; I'm not asking you to be politically correct or cast aside your sense of humor (please God you have one). This isn't a popularity contest, it's not the moral Olympics, and it's not church. But it's writing, damn it, not washing the car or putting on eyeliner. If you can take it seriously, we can do business. If you can't or won't, it's time for you to close the book and do something else." Stephen
King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000)
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