Shut up and write anyway. Don't use anything as an excuse.

Nobody cares much whether you write or not. You just have to do it

You don't know what you're doing. You're just hoping that people won't make fun of you. I had no idea how it would turn out.

Writing is the act of discovery.

I had cancer for fourteen months and wrote a memoir about the experience.

Once you have learned to trust your own voice and allowed that creative force inside you to come out, you can direct it to write short stories, novels, and poetry, do revisions, and so on. You have the basic tool to fulfill your writing dreams. But beware. This type of writing will uncover other dreams you have, too-going to Tibet, being the first woman president of the United States, building a solar studio in New Mexico-and they will be in black and white. It will be harder to avoid them.

To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.