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Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere. While others who have...more

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I still encourage anyone who feels at all compelled to write to do so. I just try to warn people who hope to get published that publication is not all...more

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The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that need...more

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Laughter is carbonated holiness.

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I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and mi...more

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If you don't know where to start, remember that every single thing that happened to you is yours and you get to tell it.

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I naively believe that self-love is 80 percent of the solution, that it helps beyond words to take yourself through the day as you would with your mos...more

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Some aching beauty comes with huge loss, although maybe not right away, when it would be helpful. Life is a very powerful force, despite the constant ...more

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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

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Two things put me in the spirit to give. One is that I have come to think of everyone with whom I come into contast as a patient in the emergency room...more

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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.

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Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and c...more

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Rituals are a good signal to your unconscious that it is time to kick in.

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You get your confidence and intuition back by trusting yourself, by being militantly on your own side. You need to trust yourself, especially on a fir...more

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Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right.