For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous. In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.

One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline.... But also every single day a kid needs a break.

You get your intuition back when you make space for it, when you stop the chattering of the rational mind.

Because this business of becoming conscious, of being a writer, is ultimately about asking yourself, How alive am I willing to be?

Perfectionism means that you try not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.

You don't always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it too.

Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.

If your wife locks you out of the house, you don't have a problem with your door.

A writer paradoxically seeks the truth and tells lies every step of the way.

Bird by bird buddy. Just take it bird by bird.

I want people who write to crash or dive below the surface, where life is so cold and confusing and hard to see.Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth.

As long as something was a mystery, there was still the potential for amazement. Maybe that's where I went wrong before. Some riddles weren't meant to be solved.

She remembered Fiona saying something once, there was nothing more attractive than a competent man. At the time she'd been a young girl, without true understanding, but now she agreed.

The life of a rock & roll band will last as long as you can look down into the audience and see yourself.

For five years I've felt like the best prostitute in a high-class whorehouse. But all the other girls get paid more than I do.

Government exists to create and preserve conditions in which people can translate their ideas into practical reality. In the best of times, much is lost in translation. But we try.

It takes 10 hands to score a basket

The only thing I really get snobby about is - not food or wine or certainly not television - I would say I get snobby about skin-care regimens and people taking care of their skin in the right way.

... it has always been the depth of my belief, my faith, or my love that was the mainspring of my behavior. When once I believed in doing a thing, nothing could prevent my doing it.

Cynical is a fool's word for realist.

The important point is to not just follow your passion but something larger than yourself.