As I sat down, though, I realized that you can get used to certain luxuries that you start to think they're necessities, but when you have to forgo them, you come to see that you don't need them after all. There was a big difference between needing things and wanting things--though a lot of people had trouble telling the two apart--and at the ranch, I could see, we have pretty much everything we'd need but precious little else.

You can't prepare for everything life's going to throw at you. And you can't avoid danger. It's there. The world is a dangerous place, and if you sit around wringing your hands about it, you'll out on all the adventure.

People are like animals. Some are happiest penned in, some need to roam free. You go to recognize what's in her nature and accept it.

You're in a horse race but you're thinking like a sheep. Sheep don't win horse races.

Sometimes you have to get sicker before you can get better.

Dad was a philosopher and had what he called his Theory of Purpose, which held that everything in life had a purpose, and unless it achieved that purpose, it was just taking up space on the planet and wasting everybody's time.

It's so much of what art and creativity are, being able to confront your own demons. If you can do that, you can get through just about everything.