I'm never ashamed to read a book twice or as many times as I want. We never expect to drink a glass of water just once in our lives. A book can be that essential, too.

I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work.

Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce. In summer, we work hard to make a tidy garden, bordered by pansies with rows or clumps of columbine, petunias, bleeding hearts. Then we find ourselves longing for the forest, where everything has the appearance of disorder; yet we feel peaceful there.

Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery.

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

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.

Be tough in the way a blade of grass is: rooted, willing to lean, and at peace with what is around it.