What you're going to be asked to do is bigger than what you think you can do. It's always bigger than what you think you can handle, but you're never going to be given something you can't handle.

Afterwards, people come and say, "I felt like you said that just to me. What you said is something I'm going through right now," so you know that spiritual connection is going on.

I also learned to tell a story. I think I learned from poetry how to time a story. Poetry's timing, beats and pauses. That white space on the page is as important as the black. The bottom of the page is blackout. It's performance.

I am one who leaves the table like a man, without putting back the chair or picking up the plate

You'll change. You'll see. Wait till you meet Mr. Right.

The experience taught me to be present in the real Buddhist sense of paying attention to the moment.

When I was very young I was reading a lot of Latin American fiction, which later would be called "boom fiction."