Recognize the possibility of the divine in any given moment.

There is no end to the promotion. There is no end to the possibilities. You can continue to promote a book for years, literally.

What's more important that spiritual life? It seems to me it's the bedrock of everything essential about being human.

A writer with her work needs to be like a dog with a bone all the time. She needs to know where she's hidden it. Where she's stored the good stuff. She needs to keep gnawing at it, even after all the meat seems to be gone. When a student of mine says (okay, whines) that she's impatient, or tired, or the worst: isn't it good enough? this may be harsh, but she loses just a little bit of my respect. Because there is no room for impatience, or exhaustion, or self-satisfaction, or laziness. All of these really mean, simply, that the inner censor has won the day.

Courage is more important than confidence

My son is now fourteen, and from the moment he was born, I understood that forevermore my heart would be walking around outside my body.

I could spend two years cross-legged on my floor and feel like I was working.