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

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.

We are each a concert reverberating with our whole lives and reflecting and amplifying the world around us.

We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.

We should notice that we are already supported at every moment. There is the earth below our feet and there is the air, filling our lungs and emptying them. We should begin from this when we need support.

The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners.

The muscles of writing are not so visible, but they are just as powerful: determination, attention, curiosity, a passionate heart.