“The more we are willing to separate from distraction and step into the open arms of boredom, the more writing will get on the page.”

“Writing well involves walking the path of most resistance. Sitting still, being patient, allowing the lunatic dream to take shape on the page, then the shaping, the pencil on the page, breathing, slowing down, being willing–no, more than willing, being wide open–to press the bruise until it blossoms.”

“Since we must and do write each our own way, we may during actual writing get more lasting instruction not from another's work, whatever its blessings, however better it is than ours, but from our own poor scratched-over pages. For these we can hold up to life. That is, we are born with a mind and heart to hold each page up to, and to ask: is it valid?”

“Curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. It's accelerative. The more we know, the more we want to know.”

“The healthier people are, the more they are willing to admit to their limitations and so the more open they are to the possibility of improvement.”

“In the long run we get no more than we have been willing to risk giving.”