You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything.

To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance-- not in real life I hope. In real life try to be nice. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble and give you more time to write.

A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters.

Assuming you can write clear English sentences, give up all worry about communication. If you want to communicate, use the telephone.

An act of imagination is an act of self-acceptance.

Don't write love poems when you're in love. Write them when you're not in love.

Say nothing and just make music and you'll find plenty to say.

Don't write with a pen. Ink tends to give the impression the words shouldn't be changed.

A good creative-writing teacher can save a good writer a lot of time.

Think small.... If you can't think small, try philosophy or social criticism.

Never want to say anything so strongly that you give up the option of finding something better. If you have to say it, you will.

But what really matters is not what you believe but the faith and conviction with which you believe…

Ignorance is a horrible thing. But arrogance, the belief that knowing a little more than the ignorant makes you wise, is more horrible still.

Morality is totally God’s standard, and his standards and conditions are revealed to us through his written word, the Scriptures (The Bible).

I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale

Because I've lived in one room my entire life, working at the same table that you use to pay bills at and eat at. It's going to be nice to have actual space.

So far there has been little discussion among gender scholars about the need to engage with skeptics. They tend to view skeptics and dissenters as cranks.

My father always told me that I was going to be a failure - I think he was more talking about himself, but I didn't know it at the time.

When she packed up to leave, she knew that she was saying goodbye to something important, which was not that bad, in a way, because it meant that at least you had said hello to it to begin with.

There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.

The heart and soul of loving yourself is integrity and the peace of conscience it inspires.