I grew up in the 70s and 80s, when guitar heroes were much more a thing than they are today.

If I look beyond the veil of appearance or wealth or labels like romance writer or poet or memoirist, I see someone much like me,

The best remedy for anxiety or despair is to turn to my curiosity.

Just as I choose every word that goes on my page, and in so doing find my way to the story I want to tell, so too I have to choose peace again and again and again.

Publishing, however you do it, is how you really finish something.

On the other side of forgiveness is always appreciation of the very thing I resented and resisted and devalued.

Artists, and writers in particular, spend every day asking questions to which they don’t have an answer.

All our accomplishments are really bi-products of the first success, the one that comes before all the acceptance letters and reviews and bookstore appearances.

What is the “miracle of creation” other than inviting through us something that hadn’t been before?

It doesn’t matter how big the world is and how long it’s been spinning, you are unique upon it, and your story is the first of its kind.

The good I’ve known, like my breath, is meant to go out.

The greatest pleasure I’ve known in my life is the fulfillment of my unique creative desire.

The only loneliness I’ve known is when I’ve tried to create without the flow.

The more I think about my stories, the more I try to understand them, the less sense they make.

Pleasing me, it turns out, is no one’s job but mine.

There’s something within you that can’t quit.