A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.

Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.

Who is there that can make muddy water clear? But if allowed to remain still, it will become clear of itself.

You have to first experience what you want to express

to be a fiction writer, you also need to be a psychologist (understanding people's personalities and intentions), a philosopher (asking big questions about meaning and human nature), and a poet (breathing life into your words and the spaces between them).

You never know what's going on in someone's life. You never know what's really going on behind what they present.

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.

Human beings are curious, and especially curious about other human beings.

Dean's eyes were studying me. You have a way with words. What kind of writing do you want to do? Articles for Dad's paper, to start. What do you want to write about? I paused, suddenly uncertain about how much to share. Dean's eyes were reassuring. When I know more, I'd like to write about deeper things.

For the monk searches not only his own heart: he plunges deep into the heart of that world of which he remains a part although he seems to have left it. In reality the monk abandons the world only in order to listen more intently to the deepest and most neglected voices that proceed from its inner depth.

We must slow down to a human tempo and we'll begin to have time to listen.

Seek dharma, child. Find out how you fit in, who you are. Remember that everything around you has a purpose. Even you, child.