Zen in the Art of Writing

All arts, big and small, are the elimination of waste motion in favor of the concise declaration. The artist learns what to leave out.

Read poetry every day of your life. Poetry is good because it flexes muscles you don’t use often enough.

If only we could remember, fame and money are gifts given us only after we have gifted the world with our best, our lonely, our individual truths.

Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together. Now, it’s your turn. Jump!

By living well, by observing as you live, by reading well and observing as you read, you have fed Your Most Original Self. By training yourself in writing, by repetitious exercise, imitation, good example, you have made a clean, well-lighted place to keep the Muse.

In your reading, find books to improve your color sense, your sense of shape and size in the world.

His greatest art will often be what he does not say, what he leaves out, his ability to state simply with clear emotion, the way he wants to go.

Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come.

When was the last time you did a story like that, out of pure indignation?