When you do something that's going to speak to people, it's going to be because you're really allowing all of yourself to the table in an accepting way.

Developing our sympathetic compassion is not only possible but the only reason for us to be here on earth.

Compassion doesn't have to be weak or enabling; it can also be quite bold.

If you could press a button and your ego investment was less, the toothache would be less. Or less tragic at least.

Every writer has to find the thing to keep her eye on about which she has strong opinions. That's of course deeply personal, but the nice thing is that it has to do with joy rather than fear. It has to do with you. If you're funny, your method will be to try to be funnier. Which again is empowering I think.

You didn't plan to write a story; it just happened. Well, it could be argued that the next thing you should do is find a hole to dig. Right? So you start digging a hole and then somebody brings a body along and puts it in. That's what a story must feel like to me. It's not that you say, "I want to write a story about a gravedigger." But you're walking along and "I don't know what I'm doing here in this story,' and - boop! a shovel. "Oh, interesting. Ok, what does one do with a shovel? Digs a hole. Why? I don't know yet. Dig the hole! Oh, look a body."

The artist’s job, I think, is to be a conduit for mystery.