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

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

I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren't writing. It is not because they are writers that they are drinking, but because they are writers who are not writing.

Be awake to the details around you, but don't be self-conscious.

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.

You don't know what you're doing. You're just hoping that people won't make fun of you. I had no idea how it would turn out.

Learning to write is not a linear process. There is no logical A-to-B-to-C way to become a good writer. One neat truth about writing cannot answer it all. There are many truths. To do writing practice means to deal ultimately with your whole life.