I was doing a lot of yoga and learning to meditate, and I found that extremely helpful, and still do and hopefully always will.

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.

We can't protect ourselves from pain and heartache.

I don't want to lean back into the past, or forward into the future. I don't want to wish the present moment away.

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

Part of my spiritual work is learning to live with the knowledge that we can't protect our loved ones from pain and heartache.

Strange - I'm not much of a film person. I love watching films, but they don't stay with me the way books do. Stranger still, because my husband is a screenwriter!