You’ll lose your reader if you are vague, not clear, and not present. We love details, personal connections, stories.
If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.
The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.
The muscles of writing are not so visible, but they are just as powerful: determination, attention, curiosity, a passionate heart.
Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath.
Wait until you are hungry to say something, until there is an aching in you to speak.
Creativity exists in the present moment. You can’t find it anywhere else.
I often wonder if all the writers who are alcoholics drink a lot because they aren’t writing. It is not because they are writers that they are drinking, but because they are writers who are not writing.
The harder you chase something, the faster you go and the less you’re able to let life meet life. If you’re having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down...
If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.
Every moment is enormous and it is all we have.
Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.
Writing is the act of discovery.
That’s very nice if they want to publish you, but don’t pay too much attention to it. It will toss you away. Just continue to write.
We walk through so many myths of each other and ourselves; we are so thankful when someone sees us for who we are and accepts us.
Our lives are at once ordinary and mythical. At the same instant we have these magnificent hearts that pump through all sorrow and all winters we are alive on the earth.
It is simply that person’s time. Ours will come in this lifetime or the next. No matter. Continue to practice.
Original details are very ordinary, except to the mind that sees extraordinariness. it’s not that we need to go to the Hopi mesas to see greatness; we need to view what we already have in a different way.
The only failure in writing is when you stop doing it. Then you fail yourself.
In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write.