And at the end of your days, you can thank creativity for having blessed you with a charmed, interesting, passionate existence.

As the saying goes, "Argue for your limitations and you get to keep them." Why would I want to keep my limitations?

Fear is a desolate boneyard where our dreams go to desiccate in the hot sun.

Do you have the courage? Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes." (quoting Jack Gilbert)

[C]reative living is a path for the brave.

If you don't learn to travel comfortably alongside your fear, then you'll never be able to go anywhere interesting or do anything interesting.

A good-enough novel violently written now is better than a perfect novel meticulously written never.

[There is a] quiet glory [in] merely making things, and then sharing those things with an open heart and no expectations.

Work with all your heart, because - I promise - if you show up for your work day after day after day after day. you just might get lucky enough some random morning to burst into bloom.

It might have been done before, but it hasn’t been done by you!

It has taken me years to learn this, but it does seem to be the case if that I am not actively creating something, then I am probably actively destroying something

One must be honest with himself. Then it will be much better than it is now.

Learning and reading will enrich your life with wisdom for living.

The task for parents and teachers is not to teach, it is how to inspire the people of youth to find their desire to learn.

Days passed in a grey fog. I was becalmed. Without energy, without hope, with no sight of land, I could remember feeling better but I somehow couldn't believe in it. There was nothing but this.

I miss doing a series, but I don't want to do a series for a series' sake.

It's like a runner or a swimmer training all the time. I sing every day.

And then I went round the corner and there's a Van Gogh portrait, and you just think, well, this is another level. A higher level, actually. I love the Sargent, but it's not the level of Van Gogh.

Instead of Otello being an Italian opera written in the style of Shakespeare, Othello is a play written by Shakespeare in the style of Italian opera.

I like fashion because it’s sort of my job, so I’m into it when I have to be. But when I’m not working, I wear jeans and T-shirts. I go to vintage stores all the time to find funky T-shirts.

Democracy will prevail when men believe the vote of Judas as good as that of Jesus Christ.