John McPhee

“What you're trying to do is make the reader feel that they are there.”

“Structure is the most important thing in writing.”

“The lead is the most important part of any story.”

“Draft numero uno is a mess. It's supposed to be a mess.”

“The first sentence of a book is a handshake.”

“Writing is selection. Just to start a piece of writing you have to choose one word and only one from more than a million in the language.”

“A piece of writing has to start somewhere, go somewhere, and sit down when it gets there.”

“Geologists have a saying — rocks remember.”

“A thousand details add up to one impression.”

“For a nonfiction writer, the facts are the bedrock.”

“A writer's life is a life of revisions.”

“You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.”

“The title comes afterwards.”

“The essence of the writer's craft is to make the reader see.”

“The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.”

“In the quest for words, I have no shame.”

“The information is there. You have to go get it.”

“If you're going to write, you're going to write, and you don't need a guarantee of a lot of money.”