Clarity and perseverance are difficult in American society because the basis of capitalism is greed and dissatisfaction.

We are important and our lives are important, magnificent really, and their details are worthy to be recorded.

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.

It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game; yet in writing we rarely give ourselves the space for practice.

I don't mean to be flippant about cancer - it was hard, it was tough and it was scary. Then my next manuscript was about cancer because I had a whole new topic to write about. And because I wrote, it didn't take over. Writing took the chaos out of cancer.

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.

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