“None of us is delicate enough to touch anyone else without hurting them a little bit.”

“I've never felt a connection like this with anyone else... I don't even know how to explain it. I feel like I already knew you before I met you, and the first time I saw you, the first time I talked to you, was incidental, because the connection was already there --.”

“The point of freewriting is to get past the voice inside your head that tells you your ideas aren't good enough, your words aren't good enough, you're no writer and so forth.”

“If you're not scared when you are writing you're not working hard enough. You'll be afraid but you have to keep going.”

“It's your writing you guys. Follow it wherever it takes you. All you need to do is tell your truth.”

“If you are here because you think writing will always be fun, you're in for a disappointment. Writing -- real writing -- is among the most difficult work you will ever face in your life. The irony is that the harder you work at it, the harder it gets.”

“And I got out of there without punching anyone, kicking anyone, or breaking down in tears. Some days the small victories are all you achieve.”