Quotable writers on writing

I've always like quotes and here are some I'm particularly fond of:

Freelance writing:

The free-lance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps. - Robert Benchley

The dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere. - S.J. Perelman

Writing (in general):

Only a mediocre writer is always at his best. - W. Somerset Maugham

The writer's way is rough and lonely and who would choose it while there are vacancies in more gracious professions, such as, say cleaning ferryboats? - Dorothy Parker

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. - Thomas Mann

You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word. - Gustave Flaubert

A blank page is God's way of showing you how hard it is to be God. - Anonymous

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean. - R. L. Stevenson

And for good measure:

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book. - Ernest Hemingway

Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none. - Jules Renard