The art and act of writing - speaking just for myself - involves getting your proverbial ass in the proverbial chair.

I think it's just too kinda juicy and compelling to imagine people in their private lives, but then half the time people's private lives are just so much more bizarre and Ted Haggard-like than you could ever imagine. It's almost hard to write fiction anymore.

All of us, at some point in life, choose our cliché.

This is, I believe, what happens when people take their own lives. They're not killing themselves, they're killing the world. Either to spare it pain or to cause it some, depending.

You may think you don't want to throw your life away for mere fleeting euphoria. But, once you get a taste, it doesn't feel so mere. From then on the planet becomes a waiting room. The rest of your life devolves to no more than the time between highs.

I need - and occasionally love - to write for the same reasons I always did: hard as writing is, it's generally easier than life.

Rumi will transform you, in ways you didn’t know you needed transforming.