Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world. Take that aching and use it to propel you deeper into your need for expression - to speak, to say who you are.

A writer must say yes to life.

One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.

I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work.

While I had cancer, I wrote these twenty-two personal essays about how I lived my life backed by Zen and writing.

The odd thing is, that I wrote The Great Spring while I had cancer and it's not about cancer. It was after I was done with cancer that I wrote a book about it.

Be awake to the details around you, but don't be self-conscious.