“Know that you will eventually have to leave everything behind; the writing will demand it of you.”

“And don't worry too much about security. You will eventually have a deep security when you begin to do what you want.”

“Nobody cares much whether you write or not. You just have to do it”

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”

“Sometimes people say to me, “I want to write, but I have five kids, a full-time job, a wife who beats me, a tremendous debt to my parents,” and so on.I say to them, “There is no excuse. If you want to write, write. This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don’t wait. Make the time now, even if it is ten minutes once a week.”

“We have to accept ourselves in order to write. Now none of us does that fully: few of us do it even halfway. Don’t wait for one hundred percent acceptance of yourself before you write, or even eight percent acceptance. Just write. The process of writing is an activity that teaches us about acceptance.”

“Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.”