Check out the Paris Review for Nabokov's chrysalis stage.

Of interest: http://dailyprincetonian.com/news/2013/09/manuscript-of-f-scott-fitzgeralds-first-novel-digitized-for-public-access/

“I like to write when I feel spiteful. It is like having a good sneeze.” ―D. H. Lawrence, letter to Cynthia Asquith, 1913

Wallace Stegner is always worth a second (or third or...) read!

This quote seems appropriate: "The way to rock oneself back into writing is this. First gentle exercise in the air. Second the reading of good literature." - Virginia Woolf