If you write memoir, it can't be about blame or hurt; it has to be creative.

I often envy my friends who are visual artists. Visual artists have other things to work with. Other media. I envy my sculptor friends: they have hunks of matter. Marble. Wood. It's physical, which I find very appealing. What we have is nothing, is just glaringly blank.

My desk is covered with talismans: pieces of rose quartz, wishing stones from a favorite beach.

Confidence is highly overrated when it comes to creating literature. A writer who is overly confident will not engage in the struggle to get it exactly right on the page - but rather, will assume that she's getting it right without the struggle.

Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write

I think there's something about a writer's disposition, that is, even if unaware, always slightly in a witness state.

When I was growing up, I had no idea that I could possibly become a writer. I wrote endlessly in journals - a practice I maintained for a long time, well into the writing life I had no idea I could ever have.