Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.

We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully: few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.

Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.

You'll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.

I don't think everyone wants to create the great American novel, but we all have a dream of telling our stories-of realizing what we think, feel, and see before we die. Writing is a path to meet ourselves and become intimate.

Choose your tools carefully, but not so carefully that you get uptight or spend more time at the stationery store than at your writing table.

When we write we begin to taste the texture of our own mind