In the West, a teacher imparts knowledge to a student. In the East, a teacher transmits nothing more or less than his or her Being.
If you love the work, it will love you back.
We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning.
Clarity and perseverance are difficult in American society because the basis of capitalism is greed and dissatisfaction.
Writing is the crack through which you can crawl into a bigger world, into your wild mind.
Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery.
Poems are taught as though the poet has put a secret key in his words and it is the reader’s job to find it. Poems are not mystery novels.
Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.
Indefinite plans get dubious results.
Great lovers realize that they are what they are in love with.
Literature gives us the great gift of the present moment.
Even an ice cream parlor – a definite advantage – does not alleviate the sorrow I feel for a town lacking a bookstore.
I’m never ashamed to read a book twice or as many times as I want. We never expect to drink a glass of water just once in our lives. A book can be that essential, too.
Watch yourself. Every minute we change. It is a great opportunity. At any point, we can step out of our frozen selves and our ideas and begin fresh.
This is the practice school of writing. Like running, the more you do it, the better you get at it.
And we can’t avoid an inch of our own experience; if we do it causes a blur, a bleep, a puffy unreality. Our job is to wake up to everything, because if we slow down enough, we see that we are everything.
I honor English majors. It’s a dumb thing to major in. It leads nowhere. It’s good to be dumb, it allows us to love something for no reason. That’s the best kind of love.
A writer’s job is to give the reader a larger vision of the world.
Women need space and silence. We too quickly give away our energy. There’s something about holding that richness.
To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.