...real childhood scars heal, but not when band-aids replace self-reflection.

The words he said, too, must be human enough to bleed.

A poet could kill the dead.

Poets, like fighters, both reap the benefits of roadwork.

I’ve learned to fall like the BJJ player, to protect the body through controlling the distribution of force by slapping the mat with hands open. With hands open. Hands open. Open. O Pen.

Stories do not change, only the lives they live in do.

Like forearm veins, my interests spread in different directions and eventually led to the hands, to writing.

If pain is a pot of boiling water, humor can be the rising steam.

It’s cool when fashion recycles itself, it’s not cool when sustainable living does because it means there was (and is as I write) a period of absolute and possibly irreversible destruction.

Fights begin and end with handshakes.

How can I stand before you in silent symbols with open palms?

My plan is to continue teaching many more years than the 32 years I've already enjoyed and continue writing, and promoting my books and websites if it's God will.

Slumps are like a soft bed. They are easy to get into and hard to get out of.

Art for me is a form of nourishment. I need the land. I need it.

I am a millionaire today and my wife deserves all of the credit. Before I met her I was a multi-millionaire.

I always tell younger filmmakers, it's not just about the acting or the art itself. It's about how big of an audience watches your film.

In the long run, failure was the only thing that worked predictably. All else was accidental.

Time is important to me because I want to sing long enough to leave a message. I'm used to singing in churches where nobody would dare stop me until the Lord arrives!

Listen, I would never judge someone who screwed their babysitter for years or knocked up their secretary, so don't ask me to.

Last week my tie caught on fire, some guy tried to put it out with an axe.

Love is a well from which we can drink only as much as we have put in, and the stars that shine from it are only our eyes looking in.