A writer must say yes to life.

It’s much better to be a tribal writer, writing for all people and reflecting many voices through us, than to be a cloistered being trying to find one peanut of truth in our own individual mind. Become big and write with the whole world in your arms.

So writing is not just writing. It is also having a relationship with other writers. And don't be jealous, especially secretly. That's the worst kind. If someone writes something great, it's just more clarity in the world for all of us.

Take out another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write.

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

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

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.