What writing practice, like Zen practice does is bring you back to the natural state of mind...The mind is raw, full of energy, alive and hungry. It does not think in the way we were brought up to think-well-mann ered, congenial.

You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.

So even though I couldn't bear writing about cancer, I faced it every day.

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

I told all kinds of stories about going to Japan, about playing ball with my father... I wanted to record my life in case it was going to end soon. So, I wrote that and it was very comforting to have that practice in the afternoons in my living room. I just wrote about my life.

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

Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.