“I believe that what we want to write wants to be written”

“Life is a blank book. Write about what you want to see happen and then step back – and experience what you’ve written.”

“For anyone who wants to write, and hopes some day to publish what he or she has written, it is far more important to write than it is to study about writing.”

“Too often we take notes on writing, we think about writing but never do it. I want you to walk into the heart of the storm, written words dripping off hair, eyelids, hanging from hands.”

“I wanted to write the most beautiful poem but that is impossible; the world has written its own.”

“I wanted what women always want: permission. But he'd had that before this book was even written; it was, after all, the first thing I'd envied about him. It was arguably what enabled him to write the book in the first place. ("Envy")”