** spoiler alert ** 
 I was given this book as a going away party from work and they couldn't have gotten me a better present. I love this book. It's one of those books that's going to sit on my shelf for years that I will keep going back to to re-read. 
 There's nothing groundbreaking about what is said in this book. It was just nice to see how one of the greatest writers goes about writing. 
 The whole notion that he suffers with crippling self-doubt was nice to read. That maybe we all have a bit of magic in us, even if we don't see it ourselves. 
 Some of my favourite quotes from the books.... 
 There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. 
 I you write (or paint or dance or sing, I suppose), someone will try and make you feel lousy about it, that's all. 
 Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position. 
 It starts with this; put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around. 
 If you're a writer. GET THIS BOOK! . It needs to be on your bookshelf.