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

Have compassion for yourself when you write. There is no failure - just a big field to wander in.

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.

Choose your tools carefully, but not so carefully that you get uptight or spend more time at the stationery store than at your writing table.

This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it. Some days you don't want to run and you resist every step of the three miles, but you do it anyway. You practice whether you want to or not. You don't wait around for inspiration and a deep desire to run ... That's how writing is too ... One of the main aims in writing practice is to learn to trust your own mind and body; to grow patient and nonaggressive.

My goal is to write every day. I say it is my ideal. I am careful not to pass judgment or create anxiety if I do not do it. No one lives up to his ideal.

Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.