A creative person has to be alive. He can't borrow from things he's done in the past. He can't let his method choose his subjects or his characters. They can't be warped to fit his style.
John SteinbeckAnd finally, in our time a beard is the one thing that a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus.
John SteinbeckAfter the bare requisites to living and reproducing, man wants most to leave some record of himself, a proof, perhaps, that he has really existed. He leaves his proof on wood, on stone or on the lives of other people. This deep desire exists in everyone, from the boy who writes dirty words in a public toilet to the Buddha who etches his image in the race mind. Life is so unreal. I think that we seriously doubt that we exist and go about trying to prove that we do.
John SteinbeckSometimes when she was alone, and she knew she was alone, she permitted her mind to play in a garden, and she smiled.
John Steinbeck