There is cracks, cracks, in everything, that's how the light gets in.' I had cracks but not the hope. - Anne Lamott

Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don't drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor's yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.

If you sit down and you start writing, it's like getting in very cold water and you're in. You might as well paddle around for a minute.

If you are a writer, or want to be a writer, this is how you spend your days — listening, observing, storing things away, making your isolation pay off. You take home all you've taken in, all that you've overheard, and you turn it into gold. (Or at least you try.)