Here's the secret of writing: there is no secret.

You don't learn to write by going through a series of preset writing exercises. You learn to write by grappling with a real subject that truly matters to you.

When students write from experience, they can breathe those specifics into their writing- dialect, odd smells, precise names of plants- that can animate even the most tired and tedious text.

Use your notebook to breathe in the world around you.

Good writing happens when human beings follow particular steps to take control of their sentences-to make their words do what they want them to do.

Writing becomes beautiful when it becomes specific, concrete.

The real meaning of a poem is to stop time.

Poems are the 'daredevil' of writing because a poem will say what nobody else wants to say.

Springtimeand I wish I knew you

One meal a day is enough for a lion and would be for all of us if all we did all day was swat flies.

One's happiness is very largely a question of state of mind rather than the world you are looking at.

This was real. And it was me. I had lived that life, and I had died that death. I was staring at the very end of me.

Not everyone who works hard makes their dream come true. You need luck and hard work and being in the right place at the right time but I still very much believe it's possible.

When the audience leaves, I'd like them to feel positive when they go.

[T]he economy remains the top issue for the electorate.

I lost a horse today.' 'That sounds careless. What happened?' 'She jumped off a cliff.' 'A cliff! Is that normal?

My kid wants to be a prison warden when he grows up so he can put thumb tacks on the electric chairs.

I imagined that being someday in pro ball I would have been Kevin Costner in Bull Durham. If I had never discovered acting, I literally would have been that guy.

I'd like to do 'Saturday Night Live.'