When everything starts going wrong all at once, it is to protect something big and lovely that is trying to get itself born..

The mix in our rooms is so touching: the clutter and the cracks in the wall belie a bleakness or brokenness in our lives; while photos and a few rare….

I wish I had thrown out the bathroom scale at age 16. Weighing yourself every morning is like waking up and asking Dick Cheney to validate your sense….

We're like Magic 8-Balls. After you ask your question and shake the 8-Ball, you read the answer in the little window. If you ever broke open a Magic ….

Getting into a new relationship is like pouring Miracle-Gro on your character defects..

My dad taught me that to be a writer is a decision and a habit. It's not anything lofty, and it doesn't have that much to do with inspiration. You ha….

She felt as if the mosaic she had been assembling out of life's little shards got dumped to the ground, and there was no way to put it back together..

Rituals are a good signal to your unconscious that it is time to kick in..

Writing has so much to give, so much to teach, so many surprises..

My writer friends, and they are legion, do not go around beaming with quiet feelings of contentment. Most of them go around with haunted, abused, sur….

You are going to have to give and give and give, or there's no reason for you to be writing. You have to give from the deepest part of yourself, and ….

Many mornings I check out the news as soon as I wake up, because if it turns out that the world is coming to an end that day, I am going to eat the f….

I like to read away as much of the afternoon as possible, until real life rears its ugly head..

I realized I was going to get through this disappointing service, and anyway, you have to be somewhere: better here, where I have heard truth spoken ….

I have a very dark sense of humor. I swear. I have a very playful relationship with Jesus..

Do you mind even a little that you are still addicted to people-pleasing, and are still putting everyone else’s needs and laundry and career ahead of….

Don’t underestimate this gift of finding a place in the writing world: if you really work at describing creatively on paper the truth as you understa….

...music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We're walking temples of noise, ….

The real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point..

I naturally prefer the company of people who hold grudges, as long as they are not held against me..

Creative expression, whether that means writing, dancing, bird-watching, or cooking, can give a person almost everything that he or she has been sear….