If I’m feeling low or sick, I lack the energy to commit to my craft. I write better songs by working to stay creatively fit.

Remember the power of a writing retreat. I wrote over 10,000 words, breaking through the intimidating block that had been building between me and my book.

It’s not always easy, maintaining journalistic distance from subjects undergoing the worst moments of their lives. It’s the obituary writer’s job.

Make art. Because there are a lot of other people out there who are just as upset as you, but don’t know how to express it.

I recognize my side job as a safety net. And I’m a real bitch when I’m hungry.

Writer-parents bemoan the desire to over-blog about, spy on, pirate their children’s lives for literary material, but motherhood comes packed with stories.

Weeks would go by with no response, and as the sun started to go down at 4 p.m. and funds were quickly running out, I decided to reevaluate my approach.

“What’s one thing you’d really like to accomplish?” she asked me as we passed through the subway turnstile.

Over the years, I’ve developed a decent workaround for a lot of my production-blocking anxiety.

I looked through all my back issues, and sure enough. Every single Tuesday for years and years: “Cancel therapy.”

For two Euros I acquired my first Italian keepsakes, a ball point pen and a lined notebook.

Sometimes an awful song is saved by amazing lyrics. But more often a great song is ruined by terrible lyrics.

Tenure-track academia includes lots of last-minute-due-tomorrow-can’t-say-no type of requests. I had to find ways to deal with it.

They don’t have anyone in their lives that loves them enough to tell them the truth.

This is a prime example of something asked of an artist to be good and cheap — it is not going to be finished fast.

Each time I see Anne Lamott, my subconscious takes a memo: you know that thing you are writing or were thinking of writing? You’d better get on it.