Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.

...What you fear will not go away; it will take you into yourself and bless you and keep you. That's the world, and we all live there.

There are so many things admirable people do not understand.

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

You can treat experience as a set of surprises on which to exercise your quirky self.

There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough.

Once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold, found some limit beyond the waterfall, a season changes and we come back changed but safe, quiet, grateful.