Some people wanted to get rich or famous, but my friends and I wanted to get real. We wanted to get deep. (Also, I suppose, we wanted to get laid.)

We were raised to believe in books, music, and nature.

For twenty years I have ached to go back home, when there was nobody there to whom I could return.

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

Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.

The worst time in any writer's life is the two months before publication. ALL writers become mental and pathetic, even those of devout faith, who have some psychological healing to lean up against, and gorgeous lives. All writers think that this time, the jig is up, and they will be exposed as frauds.