The night before I quit smoking forever, 25 years ago, I chain-smoked a whole pack of cigarettes. I had a smoker’s cough; I wanted to free myself from the tyranny of nicotine; and I did not want to follow in my father’s wake and die from lung cancer. But I also didn’t want to [...]
What would I do if I couldn’t write? Read. What would I do if I couldn’t read? Have someone read to me. What would I do if I couldn’t hear? Learn to read with my fingers. What would I do if I couldn’t feel? Take a walk and smell the [...]
As I reinvent myself one more time, and at last begin to fulfill my lifelong passion to write fiction, I must finally learn how to practice the “cultivation of leisure.” This phrase: “cultivation of leisure,” which I know I got right, has lived in my right brain since I heard it probably 20 years ago—but [...]
I write volumes in my head while riding my bicycle. Recently, while on vacation in Vermont, I averaged about 25 miles a day. By the end of 7 days I had written a best-selling novel and a few blog posts—all in my head. If only I had a wire attached to my brain to record [...]
You know that moment when you're alone in the house, or no one is talking, there is no TV or radio or computer on, and all of a sudden the refrigerator motor turns off and the house is filled with quiet and you realize that you weren't even aware of the sound of the frig [...]
How I wish Goodreads had been around back in March 1994 when my book group read and discussed our first book over dinner. I might have a more extensive account of the 80 books we’ve read so far, and the countless books I’ve read on my own. Or not. We were all six working at [...]
I don’t care what anyone says, it is not possible to multitask! When I first bit down hard on the inside of my lip while eating I hardly noticed. I was absorbed in some other task at the same time. But when it kept happening the pain called to me and I had to pay [...]
I hate riding my bike over the George Washington Bridge. Yet I do it every weekend at least once and often twice. I do it because once I get over the bridge and onto the other side, well after 10 or 15 more minutes of not so pleasant riding, I reach the wide shoulder on [...]
My 90-in-90—days of writing in that many days—is already 5 days old. I’ve established a routine: so far so good. Soyen Shaku’s heart burned for his daily meditation practice, as mine does for my daily writing practice. Like him: ‘Upon awakening, I leave my bed behind me instantly as if I had cast away a [...]
I’ve published my first novel—hooray for me! And I’m halfway through writing the second one. Again, hooray for me! It only took six published non-fiction books and too many years to assign an actual number to—who’s to know when I had my first inkling that I wanted to be a writer?—to finally settle into writing [...]
