"

Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the trut...more

"

Almost every single thing you hope publication will do for you is a fantasy, a hologram--it's the eagle on your credit card that only seems to soar.

"

You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves in your heart--your stories, visions, memories, songs: you...more

"

Writing like this is a little like milking a cow: the milk is so rich and delicious, and the cow is so glad you did it.

"

All good writers write [terrible first drafts.] This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. . . I know some very great ...more

"

Life is not a submarine.

"

I honestly think in order to be a writer, you have to learn to be reverent. If not, why are you writing? Why are you here? Let's think of reverence as...more

"

There may be a Nurse Ratched-like listing of things that must be done right this moment: foods that must come out of the freezer, appointments that mu...more

"

Toni Morrison said, "The function of freedom is to free someone else," and if you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, te...more

"

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write,...more

"

If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at ...more

"

You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wande...more

"

For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, rea...more

"

She lived in fear of ifonic endings. (91)

"

Lies cannot nourish or protect you. Only freedom from fear, freedom from lies, can make us beautiful, and keep us safe.