CC’s Reviews > Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life > Status Update

“Art isn’t extra, it’s necessary. Art isn’t life’s decoration, but its framework.”

“The world is your material. Create with it. Mix it up.”

“You can’t mind your manners when revising.”

“It takes confidence to be spare.”

"The trick of a memoir is that the book must end, but the life, if we're lucky, continues... find the right middle to end on."

“The best endings feel both surprising and inevitable.”

“We have to love making things more than we love having made them.”

“I think surprise is the secret to ever good piece of writing•

“Exposition is the enemy of the lyric. It’s hard to sing and explain at the same time.”

“I like to think of titles and epigraphs as a welcome mat.”