One of the greatest gifts you can get as a writer is to be born into an unhappy family.

Good writing ... involves the agony of turning profoundly difficult thoughts into lucid form, then forcing them into the tight-fitting uniform of language, making them visible and clear.

Writing is the only way I have to explain my own life to myself.

There's no word in the language I revere more than 'teacher.' My heart sings when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher.

I stood face to face with the moon and the ocean and the future that spread out with all its bewildering immensity before me.

Without music, life is a journey through a desert.

I wanted to become the seeker, the aroused and passionate explorer, and it was better to go at it knowing nothing at all, always choosing the unmarked bottle, always choosing your own unproven method, armed with nothing but faith and a belief in astonishment.