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 needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason they write so very little. But we do. We have so much we want to say and figure out.

...the three things I cannot change are the past, the truth, and you.

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.

For some of us, good books and beautiful writing are our ultimate solace, even more comforting than exquisite food.

Jealousy is such a direct attack on whatever measure of confidence you’ve been able to muster. But if you continue to write, you are probably going to have to deal with it, because some wonderful, dazzling successes are going to happen for some of the most awful, angry, undeserving writers you know-people who are, in other words, not you.

We're out there somewhere between the known and the unknown, trying to reel in both for a closer look.

I would seriously rather be in a long line at the DMV than eat with people I don't know.