Art is not about thinking something up. It is the opposite - getting something down.

I think of making love and making art as being very parallel. Even the most amateur attempt can be thrilling.

We talk about self-expression but need to pause and remember that self-expression requires a self to express.

I believe that what we want to write wants to be written. I believe that as I have an impulse to create, the something I want to create has an impulse to want to be born. My job, then, is to show up on the page and let that something move through me, in a sense, what wants to be written is none of my business.

People frequently believe the creative life is grounded in fantasy. The more difficult truth is that creativity is grounded in reality, in the particular, the focused, the well observed or specifically imagined.

Workaholism is an addiction, and like all addictions, it blocks creative energy.

It takes constant vigilance not to slip into negativity or simple apathy. It takes courage to believe over any given period of time that we are getting better and not sliding into decline.