This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.

We are each a concert reverberating with our whole lives and reflecting and amplifying the world around us.

Poetry has never been a favorite American pastime.

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.

You don't need to go to a therapist, you don't need to do all kinds of things. If you want to write, you physically have to do it.

The odd thing is, that I wrote The Great Spring while I had cancer and it's not about cancer. It was after I was done with cancer that I wrote a book about it.

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.