The things that make you a functional citizen in society - manners, discretion, cordiality - don't necessarily make you a good writer. Writing needs raw truth, wants your suffering and darkness on the table, revels in a cutting mind that takes no prisoners.

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

If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.

We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning.

That's very nice if they want to publish you, but don't pay too much attention to it. It will toss you away. Just continue to write.

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 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.