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

Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery.

I came out with a book called The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. It's a book that describes how writing is a practice and how my teaching is part of that practice. I direct the writing and create books but underneath, there's always the river of practice happening. No good, no bad. Just do it.

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

Use original detail in your writing. Life is so rich, if you can write down the real details of the way things were and are, you hardly need anything else.

The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.

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.