Know that you will eventually have to leave everything behind; the writing will demand it of you.

A writer must say yes to life.

I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.

I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky.

To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.

Let's say I've directed that [writing] energy into writing my latest book but suddenly, I really want to write about an onion. I don't say to myself, "No, you have stay on the subject," because I know that the longer I stay on the subject the more boring I get. So, if my mind wants to write about an onion, it might be a deeper way to go into what I'm working on, even though it might seem irrelevant. This is how I've learned to follow my mind.

I don't know anything but writing practice, and so what I really do is direct that energy as if it were flowing down a river.