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.

If you love the work, it will love you back.

Don't let yourself be thrown away....Continue on no matter what....Continue to make a positive effort for the good.

Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak.

It is simply that person's time. Ours will come in this lifetime or the next. No matter. Continue to practice.

Katagiri Roshi says: "Poor artists. They suffer very much. They finish a masterpiece and they are not satisfied. They want to go on and do another." Yes, but it's better to go on and do another if you have the urge than to start drinking and become alcoholic or eat a pound of good fudge and get fat.

If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.