Passion about nothing is like pouring gasoline in a car without wheels. It isn't going to lead anybody anywhere.

Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It's like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.

Our lives have a countdown clock that we can't see. Mine reminds me to only do work that matters.

We shouldn’t be afraid to embrace whimsy, that nagging idea that life could be magical; it could be special if we were only willing to take a few risks.

I think writers can get a little melodramatic sometimes about their work, and it helps me not to do that, to just say, "Well, this is how I make a living, and I need to become a very good craftsman."

If honesty is the key to intimacy, it means we don't have to be perfect and we don't have to pretend to be perfect.

I'm amazed at how much my writing is improved when I step away from the computer, even in small amounts. If I'm stuck, I vacuum the living room or walk the dog. I'm amazed at what comes out of that... We have to realize that part of the writing life where we're sitting down at the computer is harvesting the crops, but you have to have planted them and watered them and created fertile soil - and that's a life.