By letting go of yourself, leaving yourself and everything yours behind so decisively that nothing more is left of you but a purposeless tension .

He grows daily more capable of following any inspiration without technical effort, and also of letting inspiration come to him through meticulous observation.

In the case of archery, the hitter and the hit are no longer two opposing objects, but are one reality.

The shot will go smoothly only when it takes the archer himself by surprise.

The more a human being feels himself a self, tries to intensify this self and reach a never-attainable perfection, the more drastically he steps out of the center of being.

The right shot at the right moment does not come because you do not let go of yourself. You do not wait for fulfilment, but brace yourself for failure.

You must act as if the goal were infinitely far off.

Far from wishing to awaken the artist in the pupil prematurely, the teacher considers it his first task to make him a skilled artisan with sovereign control of his craft.

This, then, is what counts: a lightning reaction which has no further need of conscious observation. In this respect at least the pupil makes himself independent of all conscious purpose.

The man, the art, the work--it is all one.

Zen Buddhism does not preach. Sermons remain words. It waits until people feel stifled and insecure, driven by a secret longing.

With my pen I have engraved warrants of citizenship in the most remote corners, for truly the world has been my home.

Fame - anyone who says he doesn't like it is crazy.

I know my mother so well, so it's hard for me to remember that people have a certain image of her, but they don't really know her personality.

The secret heart is fair devotion's temple; there the saint, even on that living altar, lights the flame of purest sacrifice, which burns unseen, not unaccepted.

As miserable as life may be I hold it pretty precious

In life it is training rather than birth which counts.

In the society of ladies, want of sense is not so unpardonable as want of manners.

I think that cynicism can often be mistaken for wisdom.

If you want to change something by Tuesday, theater is no good. Journalism is what does that. But, if you want to just alter the chemistry of the moral matrix, then theater has a longer half-life.

I think women are very powerful and I think we're more powerful together than separated.