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

I'm most connected to myself when I'm alone in a room, moving my hand across a page. That's when I feel most like me.

Open your hearts. Deep inside ourselves, we are all one and the same.

We are tyrannized by our options.

The writing life requires courage, patience, persistence, empathy, openness, and the ability to deal with rejection. It requires the willingness to be alone with oneself. To be gentle with oneself. To look at the world without blinders on. To observe and withstand what one sees. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks. To be willing to fail - not just once, but again and again, over the course of a lifetime.

I've certainly faced some raw, real pain in my life. I lost my father to a car accident when I was young. My mother died ten years ago. My son was very sick as an infant. Eventually, I have attempted to transform this pain into art, to make meaning out of it.

All there is to do, right at this very moment, is to breathe in, breathe out, and kiss the joy as it flies.