The signals we give-yes or no, or maybe-/should be clear/the darkness around us is deep.

The root and the flower have to trust each other. If the root does not trust, the plant won't blossom.

I have a feeling that art is something you do for yourself, and that any time you turn your decisions over to someone else you're postponing at best, your own development. The atmosphere of the workshop should be that of trying out one's own work and accepting the signals from others but not accepting the dictation of others because that is a violation of the spirit of art. Art can't be done by somebody else, it has got to be done by the artist.

A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them.

The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found.

You can lie at a banquet but you have to be honest in the kitchen.

What you have to do as a writer is . . . write day in and day out no matter what happens.