“Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down.”

“Create dangerously, for people who read dangerously. ... Writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her life to read them.”

“What you’re feeling now, and the person you may reach with your words five years from now-that's why you write poetry.”

“When you want to learn, sometimes you have to take risks. Someone might laugh at you; your feelings might get hurt. But then you’ll feel good because you were brave enough to try. Whether you pronounce the words right is not what will matter—not right now. What will matter is that you tried.” Her dark eyes found”

“Don’t write what you know—what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you—and interests you deeply—and your readers will catch fire at your words.”

“Write from truth, write from self. Writing theory or conceptual writing may be A way to create new forms or styles but in the end? The Words Must Be Your Own.”