Robert McKee responds to a question about consciously trying to write a classic, and discusses whether approaching your writing in that way is worthwhile.
 

A few suggestions about how to write from other writers:

“Every good storyteller nowadays starts with the end, and then goes on to the beginning and concludes with the middle.”

– Oscar Wilde

“The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them.”

– Vladimir Nabokov