In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write.

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.

While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing.

The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind.

Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning. We should not be ashamed of this. It is good. It's like drinking water.

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

Whether you're keeping a journal or writing as a meditation, it's the same thing. What's important is you're having a relationship with your mind.