As long as we know what it's about, then we can have the courage to go wherever we are asked to go, even if we fear that the road may take us through danger and pain.

If we are to be aware of life while we are living it, we must have the courage to relinquish our hard-earned control of ourselves.

The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.

Art is communication.

When the work takes over, then the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere. When the work takes over, then the artist listens.

We are suspicious of grace. We are afraid of the very lavishness of the gift.

When I am constantly running there is no time for being. When there is no time for being there is no time for listening.

Aeschylus writes, "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grade of God.

Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.

Reading about the response of people in stories, plays, poems, helps us to respond more courageously and openly at our own moments of turning.

Freedom is a terrible gift, and the theory behind all dictatorships is that "the people" do no want freedom.

A lot of impulsive mistakes are made by people who simply aren’t willing to stay bored a little longer.

For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others.

If I am only happy for myself, many fewer chances for happiness. If I am happy when good things happen to other people, billions more chances to be happy!

Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job you're in bad shape.

If you want magic, let go of your armor. Magic is so much stronger than steel.

To me, the most important thing is happiness.

I do films which get me out of my comedian routine so that I don't get bored being a stand-up comedian. And with films, it's here today, gone tomorrow. So stand-up comedy is here to stay for me.

The sacred lamp of day Now dipt in Western clouds his parting day.

A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.