Well, I'm a slow writer. For me, a good day is a page, maybe a page and a half. I'd love to be more efficient, but I am not.

Ask her what she craved, and she'd get a little frantic about things like books, the woods, music. Plants and the seasons. Also freedom.

We are not strong enough to stand up against endless grief, And yet pain is the constant drone of life. So if we are to have any happiness at all, it is only in the passing instant.

She always carried a book, though, in case she needed to read a few pages to avoid unwanted conversation.

Claim your space. Draw a circle of light around it. Push back against the dark. Don't just survive. Celebrate.

Thinking: this journey will be the axle of my life.

All I can say is that we are mistaken to gouge such a deep rift in history that the things old men and old women know have become so useless as to be not worth passing on to grandchildren.

I had never taken creative writing classes. Hadn't even considered it.

A lizard in the spring - hear his darling sing. A bird with wings to fly - go back to his darling weep and moan till he dies. A mole in the ground - root a mountain down.

He tried to name which of the deadly seven might apply, and when he failed he decided to append an eighth, regret.

It always helps me connect with characters, to think about what music they respond to

Assumptions are quick exits for lazy minds that like to graze out in the fields without bother.

While we are together, I will never suffer a prison again.

I think, therefore I am, dangerous.

Separation of mind and body, that's been around since the Greeks.

I am committed to doing customer service for Craigslist for the rest of my life. The exit strategy is death.

Are you gonna follow your soul? Or just the style of the day?

Priest is a fisherman and Holy Book is a fishook. We either refuse to be a fish or we burn in the frying pan of irrationality!

If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question.

I'm actually a pretty upbeat person outside of playing music.

Many people love my music. Many do not understand it. In general my music is more easily understood by younger people in Mali, and by people outside Africa.