“I don’t want you to write about what you know, because you don’t know anything. I don’t want to hear about your boyfriend or your grandma… I’m getting a little tired of ‘my life story as fiction’. Please don’t tell me about your little life — is there nothing larger? More important?” – Toni Morrison

“Tell the story that’s been growing in your heart, the characters you can’t keep out of your head, the tale story that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning.” – Jennifer Weiner

“But isn’t it true that an author can write only about himself?” – Milan Kundera

“If you wrote from experience, you’d get maybe one book, maybe three poems. Writers write from empathy.” – Nikki Giovanni

“The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write about it.” – Benjamin Disraeli