I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case it was going to end soon. So, I wrote that and it was very comforting to have that practice in the afternoons in my living room. I just wrote about my life.

Katagiri Roshi says: "Poor artists. They suffer very much. They finish a masterpiece and they are not satisfied. They want to go on and do another." Yes, but it's better to go on and do another if you have the urge than to start drinking and become alcoholic or eat a pound of good fudge and get fat.

Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.

The odd thing is, that I wrote The Great Spring while I had cancer and it's not about cancer. It was after I was done with cancer that I wrote a book about it.

Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.