As an experienced artist, I carry my work like a secret pregnancy. I am always aware of inner life and the need to protect it.

Art is a spiritual practice. We may not, and need not, do it perfectly.

I learned to just show up at the page and write down what I heard. Writing became more like eavesdropping and less like inventing a nuclear bomb.

Rather than being taught to ask ourselves who we are, we are schooled to ask others. We are, in effect, trained to listen to others’ versions of ourselves.

By listening to the creator within, we are led to our right path.

Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect. When we are dealing with people's dreams - their visions, really - we are in the realm of the sacred. We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own. We are engaged in a sacred transaction of which we know only a little: the shadow, not the shape.

Try approving of yourself just as you are, and spoiling yourself rotten with small kid's pleasures.