Writing practice brings us back to the uniqueness of our own minds and an acceptance of it. We all have wild dreams, fantasies, and ordinary thoughts. Let us to feel the texture of them and not be afraid of them.Writing is still the wildest thing I know.

A responsibility of literature is to make people awake, present, alive. If the writer wanders, then the reader, too, will wander.

I have students that I tell, "If your book doesn't sell or you can't publish it, write another book. Quit sitting around." The publishing world is a business, but it's not any big deal. An editor is not your guru. Your agent is not your guru.

Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.

One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.

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

poems are small moments of enlightenment