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.

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

The first thing is how awful cancer was, the experience. When you first go through it, you're just trying to survive. But when I wrote about it, I really digested it. It was unbearable but I had practice behind me.

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

[T]he one thing I want for you is to recognize when you are really singing in writing practice and honor that. Trust that. When you were screaming on the page. Maybe that doesn't make a whole book but that is the true seed.

Oh, my passion! That is what finally carried me through. Let passion burn all the way, heating up every layer of the psyche.

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