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

What writing practice, like Zen practice does is bring you back to the natural state of mind...The mind is raw, full of energy, alive and hungry. It does not think in the way we were brought up to think-well-mann ered, congenial.

This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.

In writing with detail, you are turning to face the world. It is a deeply political act, because you are not staying in the heat of your own emotions. You are offering up some good solid bread for the hungry.

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath.

Know that you will eventually have to leave everything behind; the writing will demand it of you.

To stay close and intimate with experience is to stay close to the mind; the nitty gritty mind of the way things really are.