Ever since I began to compose, I have remained true to my starting principle: not to write a page because no matter what public, or what pretty girl wanted it to be thus or thus; but to write solely as I myself thought best, and as it gave me pleasure. Felix Mendelssohn
I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as about him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning. Samuel Beckett
When I need the idea, I can find it immediately. I have a horror of rewriting or deleting; the parts of my composition are carried in my head 'till I can write them down, even to the last note. Then I do not alter a jot. Ruggero Leoncavallo
When I write stories I am like someone who is in her own country, walking along streets that she has known since she was a child, between walls and trees that are hers. Natalia Ginzburg
A very wise author once said that a writer writes for himself, and then publishes for money. I write for myself and publish just for the reader. Guillermo Cabrera Infante
I do like to write nasty songs. It's a useful weapon to have, and it's cathartic as well, because I create art out of anger, something positive out of something negative. Lisa Marie Presley
I wouldn't write anything autobiographical. If you've lived a life like Laurence of Arabia, it might be a consideration, but otherwise it's a little bit vain, it seems to me. James Lee Burke
For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself. Winston Churchill