The Act Is Transcendent

We Have a Responsibility

"We know in our deep and private places that we have a responsibility to take on things that draw our attention and to turn them into these mysterious objects—poems and stories—that illuminate, that offer an objection to the status quo, that warn and empower."

Turn Straw into Gold

Exposure Cannot Be Measured

"If you do care about having a go at this writing thing as a proper career, do not write for exposure. Exposure cannot be measured, and you might as well write for any number of invisible things: the dreams of sleeping kittens, perhaps, or mystical unicorn turds. You should always be getting something measurable for your writing."

The Story You Never Wrote

"An abandoned story at page one or page 356 has the same value as a story you never wrote in the first place."

Spontaneity Is the Art

"If something happens in those spontaneous moments of writing that's different than my outline, I go with the spontaneity, and change the outline to suit it.  Because the spontaneity, that's the art.  My intentions are the craft, right?  That's what I'm trying to do.  But what is being done is where the magic is."