Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth.

I think talent is like a water table under the earth—you tap it with your effort and it comes through you.

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.

The muscles of writing are not so visible, but they are just as powerful: determination, attention, curiosity, a passionate heart.

It is odd that we never question the feasibility of a football team practicing long hours for one game; yet in writing we rarely give ourselves the space for practice.

The only failure in writing is when you stop doing it. Then you fail yourself.

To stay close and intimate with experience is to stay close to the mind; the nitty gritty mind of the way things really are.