By 'expecting nothing' you are not 'giving up.' Far from it! You are making a decision to focus on what needs to be done rather than on outcomes.

Creativity is the marriage humanity makes with eternity.

Abstraction is itself an abstract word and has no single meaning ... Every word in our language is abstract, because it represents something else.

Almost nothing beautiful or brilliant happens unless a person has thought about it a lot.

An artist feels vulnerable to begin with; and yet the only answer is to recklessly discard more armour.

If we had the consciousness of a cat or a dog, we would have it in us to become perfect Zen masters. We could gnaw on a bone, take a nap, play with a spider until we killed it, get our litter just right, and be innocently and serenely present. Meaning would mean nothing to us, nor would we need it to mean anything. We would be free, and we would be spared. But, we are human beings, and we posses that odd duck – human consciousness.

When you consciously decide to breathe more slowly and deeply, you alert your body to the fact that you want it to behave differently. You are not just changing your breathing pattern, you are making a full-body announcement that you are entering into a different relationship with your mind and your body.