...at last I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had.

Work freely and rollickingly as though you were talking to a friend who loves you. Mentally (at least three or four times a day) thumb your nose at all know-it-alls, jeerers, critics, doubters.

Families are great murderers of the creative impulsive, particularly husbands.

...writing is not a performance but a generosity.

Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.

Of course, in fairness, I must remind you of this: that we writers are the most lily-livered of all craftsmen. We expect more, for the most peewee efforts, than any other people.

...the best way to know the Truth or Beauty is to try to express it. And what is the purpose of existence Here or Yonder but to discover truth and beauty and express it, i.e., share it with others?

By encouraging the critic in themselves (the hater) they have killed the artist (the lover).

At least I understood that writing was this: an impulse to share with other people a feeling or truth that I myself had. Not to preach to them, but to give it to them if they cared to hear it.

Everyone knows how people who laugh easily create us by their laughter, --making us think of funnier and funnier things.

Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.

This America of yours, does it always build what you dream?

As far as I am concerned, poetry is a statement concerning the human condition, composed in verse.

Once you get to a certain level, anybody can beat anybody else on any given day.

I'm in San Francisco because of the energy, the ideas, and the fact that this is a great place for me to land. When I'm traveling and working nationally, I love coming back here.

In the midst of creating, a person is raised to another level of consciousness.

Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don't live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don't be an automaton.

When I was working on my career, I was very aware of what I had done, what I wanted to do next. I'm having a good time just reading things that might be interesting to do.

Sending our youth to war is wrong.

That means that the universe is two-dimensional. Matter, energy, time, you, me and the floor are holograms.