Genius is not only a what or a who, it is a where. It is grounded in a place every single time.

Normally, we think of the religious as people who care more, not less than the rest of us. This is not true, not exactly. The truly religious care more deeply about fewer things and do't give a hoot about the rest.

You look around the world at geniuses, and they don't appear randomly, they appear in genius clusters. Athens in 50 BC, Florence 1500, Silicon Valley today. This is not a coincidence.

As I railed on and on, I became increasingly energied and excited by my own misery and misanthropy until I reached a kind of orgasm of negativity.'... The Brits don't merely enjoy misery, they get off on it.

When you're stuck on something creatively, you can't solve a problem, you go to a coffee shop.

Joseph Campbell, who when asked what spiritual practice he followed said, "I underline books." Me too.

We help other people because we can, or because it makes us feel good, not because we're counting on some future payback. There is a word for this; love.