Success is so fleeting, even if you get a good book deal or your book is a huge success, there's always the fear: What about the next one?

It's essential to have sacred time for writing. All successful authors have some daily commitment to keep on-track and moving forward.

Our minds have a tendency to wander. To duck and feint and keep us at a slight remove from the moment at hand.

How do we live the writer's life? There's only one simple answer: 'we write.'

At some point each day (well, most days) I unroll my mat and practice for an hour. I sit in meditation for a while. This can be five minutes or twenty minutes, but the daily practice - simply showing up for it - is centering.

Everything I know about life I learned from the daily practice of sitting down to write.

We don't choose what's going to wake us up.