Writing is the act of discovery.

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.

Play around. Dive into absurdity and write. Take chances. You will succeed if you are fearless of failure.

If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you.

I think talent is like a water table under the earth—you tap it with your effort and it comes through you.

poems are small moments of enlightenment

The responsibility of literatuure is to make people awake, present, alive. If the writer wanders, then the reader, too, will wander.

Begin with “I remember.” Write lots of small memories. If you fall into one large memory, write that. Just keep going. Don’t be concerned if the memory happened five seconds ago or five years ago.

It’s good to go off and write a novel, but don’t stop doing writing practice.

Keep your hand moving. (Don’t pause to reread the line you have just written. That’s stalling and trying to get control of what you’re saying.)

I wasn't that great a chef, and I don't think I'm that great a writer.

Today, rather than talk in terms of ideology or ideas like socialism, I think more important issues to discuss are things like compassion and accountability.

If you want to get out of medicine the fullest enjoyment, be students all your lives.

I was looking at these actresses sort of sitting around under umbrellas, people bringing them cold drinks and I was like, 'That looks so much easier than what I'm doing' and I was so wrong.

I want to motivate the world, basically.

Wouldn't the world be a cleaner place if we gave blind people brooms instead of canes?

After working as a producer on many pop, electronica and some soundtrack, incidental music projects, I became more focused on film and TV scores.

College football: I do not see the relationship of those highly industrialized affairs on Saturday afternoons to higher learning in America.

Write from your heart, and God will take care of the rest.

Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content! Farewell the plumed troops, and the big wars That make ambition virtue.