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We have this idea that we need to be in the mood to write. We don't.

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Fame is a spiritual drug. It is often a by-product of our artistic work, but like nuclear waste, it can be a very dangerous by-product.

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I do not put in long hours at the keys - or very seldom. Instead, I snatch time. I write in the crannies of my life.

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Working with the morning pages, we begin to sort through the differences between our real feelings, which are often secret, and our official feelings,...more

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Art is not about thinking something up. It is about the opposite—getting something down.

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Timid young artists, adding parental fears to their own, often give up their sunny dreams of artistic careers, settling into the twilight world of cou...more

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Creativity - like human life itself - begins in darkness

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Those who speak in spiritual terms routinely refer to God as creator but seldom see "creator" as the literal term for "artist". I am suggesting you ta...more

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No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too...more

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Once writing becomes an act of listening instead of an act of speech, a great deal of the ego goes out of it.

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Just as a good rain clears the air, a good writing day clears the psyche.

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If we eliminate the word "writer", if we just go back to writing as an act of listening and naming what we hear, some of the rules dissappear. There i...more

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We should write because it is human nature to write. Writing claims our world. It makes it directly and specifically our own. We should write because ...more

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The "if I had time" lie is a convenient way to ignore the fact that novels require being written and that writing happens a sentence at a time. Senten...more

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Writing is a way not only to metabolize life but to alchemize it as well. It is a way to transform what happens to us in our own experience. It is a w...more