I get thirsty people glasses of water, even if that thirsty person is just me. - Anne Lamott

Writing takes a combination of sophistication and innocence; it takes conscience, our belief that something is beautiful because it is right.

To be engrossed by something outside ourselves is a powerful antidote for the rational mind, the mind that so frequently has its head up its own ass — seeing things in such a narrow and darkly narcissistic way that it presents a colo-rectal theology, offering hope to no one.

"One writer I know tells me that he sits down every morning and says to himself nicely, "It's not like you don't have a choice, because you do — you can either type or kill yourself.