Life is not orderly. No matter how we try to make life so, right in the middle of it we die, lose a leg, fall in love, drop a jar of applesauce.

Talk when you talk, walk when you walk, and die when you die.

The correctness and quality of what you write do not matter; the act of writing does.

When you write what you know, you stay in control. One of the first things I encourage my writing students to do is to lose control - say what they want to say, break structure.

Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go.

You live and then you die, I thought. It's good to have some good times.