By the time I'm nine I know the world is a dangerous place. I've heard whispers about razorblades in apples, about Charlie Manson and his family. But no one is offering any clear information.

I became an electrician after high school. But I always had this thing in me to write. But it was always a little shameful. To say you were a poet was saying you were kind of crazy, and I carried that around for a long time. I still kind of carry that. And I think it might be true, actually.

By the time I'm nine I know the world is a dangerous place. I've heard whispers about razorblades in apples, about Charlie Manson and his family. But no one is offering any clear information.

Change is one of the only constants in Buddhism; as meditation became the way I breathed in the days, this became apparent.

Perhaps everyone has a story that could break your heart.

If you're going to write about someone's life, you don't just use them for wallpaper. You have to honor and respect that life.

I can weep pretty easily. I can get tears in my eyes from a beautiful work of art.