When an artist paints a picture he does not want you to consider his personality as represented in that picture - he wants you to look at the beauty of that picture. No one cares who has painted the picture as long as it is beautiful.

You can be creative only when there is abandonment-which means, really, there is no sense of compulsion, no fear of not being, of not gaining, of not arriving. Then there is great austerity, simplicity, and with it there is love.

We want to be famous as a writer, as a poet, as a painter, as a politician, as a singer, or what you will. Why? Because we really don't love what we are doing. If you loved to sing, or to paint, or to write poems, if you really loved it you would not be concerned with whether you are famous or not.

[on the secret to a happy, content life] Do you want to know what my secret is? I don’t mind what happens.

If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation. If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower.

To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one.

To be is to be related.