there simply is no way to describe the past without lying. Our memories are not like fiction. They are fiction.

Grit is the stubborn refusal to quit.

To have a style is to be stuck.

We need to be willing to risk embarrassment, ask silly questions, surround ourselves with people who don't know what we're talking about. We need to leave behind the safety of our expertise.

What you discover when you look at creativity from the perspective of the brain is that it is universal. We're all creative all of the time, we can't help but be creative.

When we venture beyond the edge of our knowledge, all we have is art.

The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it.

In fact, the only way to remain creative over time--to not be undone by our expertise--is to experiment with ignorance, to stare at things we don't fully understand.

While human nature largely determines how we hear the notes, it is nurture that lets us hear the music.

Rejection process is not fun. It's the red pen on the page, the discarded sketch, sometimes is the only way forward.

The best way to solve a problem? Try explaining it to somebody outside your field.

Think of the old cliché about the mind being 'an excellent servant but a terrible master'. This, like many clichés, so lame & banal on the surface, actually expresses a great & terrible truth.

Last night the nightingale sat by my window and sang her joyous song of love...Though I loved it, my heart silently missed the beautiful song of your heart beat!

I've always wanted to be thrown into the ocean when I die - to be rowed out to sea and thrown overboard into the Atlantic.

You been down to the bottom with a bad man, babe But you're back were you belong

The fear of offending can be stronger than the fear of pain

I am always tying up and then deciding to depart.

Doing good stuff or stuff that you are proud of takes time and takes effort.

The more depressed and maladjusted you are, the more likely it is that you are seeing things right, with minimal bias

Neither of us entered marriage thinking it wouldn't be a strain. Life has strains in it, and he's the person I want to strain with.

Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness, but I don't argue with it - especially as I am rarely in a position to prove that it is mistaken. Negative proof is usually impossible.