Not everyone's life is what they make it. Some people's life is what other people make it.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

Critics don't really affect the fact that we live in this paradise and what the meaning of that [is]. And what luck to have this!

Many people are aware that we are in peril and that there is no trustworthy leadership.

Curiosity is my natural state and has led me headlong into every worthwhile experience (never mind the others) I have ever had.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.