keep your hand moving

Creativity is no big deal.

A writer must say yes to life.

Writing is the act of discovery.

The problem is we think we exist.

Read books. They are good for us.

Indefinite plans get dubious results.

Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger.

poems are small moments of enlightenment

Anything we fully do is an alone journey.

As writers we need to crack open language.

If you love the work, it will love you back.

I consider writing a legitimate Zen practice.

All of us can create if we allow ourselves to.

When you are present, the world is truly alive.

I am free to write the worst junk in the world.

Every moment is enormous and it is all we have.

Poetry has never been a favorite American pastime.

Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write.

Writing can teach us the dignity of speaking the truth.

The difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle.

Literature gives us the great gift of the present moment.

In the end, you have to just sit down, shut up, and write.

Shut up and write anyway. Don't use anything as an excuse.

Handwriting is more connected to the movement of the heart.

When we write we begin to taste the texture of our own mind

Never underestimate people. They do desire the cut of truth.

Talk when you talk, walk when you walk, and die when you die.

Great lovers realize that they are what they are in love with.

Be awake to the details around you, but don't be self-conscious.

When I wrote and got out of the way, writing did writing.” (p.90)

A writer's job is to give the reader a larger vision of the world.

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

Shut up and write. Don't talk about writing, just physically do it.

When you are not writing, you are a writer too. It doesn't leave you.

I think book publishing is fun, but I also know I've been very lucky.

To encounter a fine book and have time to read it is a wonderful thing.

You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.

If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency.

Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.

Poetry is a dumb Buddha who thinks a donkey is as important as a diamond.

I had cancer for fourteen months and wrote a memoir about the experience.

So even though I couldn't bear writing about cancer, I faced it every day.

The only failure in writing is when you stop doing it. Then you fail yourself.

Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath.

Our job as writers is to listen, to come home to the four corners of the earth.

Ultimately, writing is about trusting your own mind. It is an act of discovery.

Kill the idea of the lone, suffering artist. Don't make it any harder on yourself.

This is your life. You are responsible for it. You will not live forever. Don't wait.

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