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

My journals were a clearing house - a garbage can. Once I was writing seriously, I understood that this was the stuff that didn't belong in my work.

We can't protect ourselves from pain and heartache. In fact, to love - fully, madly, deeply - is the ensure heartache some day.

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.

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.

When I sit down with my notebook, when I start scribbling words across the page, I find out what I’m feeling.

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