I have been writing for 30 years. I approach every instance of writing, whether it be a poem, a story, a novel, or an essay, as if I'd never written a word. I let the vision find the right format, as I try to free myself from the influences of my beloved teachers and literary forebears. Never an easy thing to do, it is the only way to realize originality in my work. I think it is the duty of any living writer to write from the heart, thereby acting as a medium for the zeitgeist, a witness who produces what can only be produced by his or her individual circumstances in his or her time, free of self-consciousness and its attending egotism.