Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.

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

keep your hand moving

We must remember that everything is ordinary and extraordinary. It is our minds that either open or close.

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

I came out with a book called The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language. It's a book that describes how writing is a practice and how my teaching is part of that practice. I direct the writing and create books but underneath, there's always the river of practice happening. No good, no bad. Just do it.

Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader's job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.