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

I do whatever is necessary in order to maintain the equanimity we all need to withstand the disappointment and rejection that are the lot of every writer, no matter where we are in our careers.

In a creative journey, it is essential, no matter how far one runs, to examine that which is closest to home.

As a writer we are our own instruments; we need to protect our instrument, because no one will protect it if we don't.

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.

When I was writing my first novel, I smoked cigarettes. And when I think about what it was like to smoke, I remember exactly the feeling of sitting in front of my big old computer in that little room where I wrote my first novel.

We are tyrannized by our options.