At some point, you really just have to finish your work and release it as is-if only so you can go on and make other things with a glad and determined heart.

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.

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

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!

We all have the power to influence others. It is up to us, whether we are going to abuse that power to manipulate people or use it to help them.

Jealousy is not the remedy.It is the illness.

To attract all the beauty of life, spread the fragrance of happiness like a dancing flower of peace.

Some books must be sipped slowly like a strong bourbon. Most books must be devoured more than once because as you age you distill more.

Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.

Telling stories to make himself into something that he isn’t. We all do it. We all tell stories to make ourselves look better.

Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.

Let no one be ashamed to say yes today if yesterday he said no. Or to say no today if yesterday he said yes. For that is life. Never to have changed-what a pitiable thing of which to boast!

Because I have known despair, I value hope. Because I have tasted frustration, I value fulfillment. Because I have been lonely, I value love.

Birds have wings; they're free; they can fly where they want when they want. They have the kind of mobility many people envy.