First thoughts have tremendous energy. The internal censor usually squelches them, so we live in the realm of second and third thoughts, thoughts on thought, twice and three times removed from the direct connection of the first fresh flash.

Choose your tools carefully, but not so carefully that you get uptight or spend more time at the stationery store than at your writing table.

The deepest secret in our heart of hearts is that we are writing because we love the world.

I still write with pen and paper and have someone type it on a computer. But rewriting I do by hand.

This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.

Original details are very ordinary, except to the mind that sees extraordinariness. it's not that we need to go to the Hopi mesas to see greatness; we need to view what we already have in a different way.

It used to be with chocolate. I would put chocolate in my studio and say, "You know, Nat, there's this chocolate you can have if you get over there." And usually if I got over there, I would start writing. Sometimes I need get out of the house and go to a café and write. Sometimes I'll write with other friends to get myself going. And sometimes I just say "Ok, Nat, enough. Go one hour. Keep your hand going." I'll do whatever it takes.