Anything you do has a still point. When you are in that still point, you can perform maximally.

It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.

It's a shame to waste [the uniqueness that is you], by doing what someone else has done.

What gods are there, what gods have there ever been, that were not from man's imagination?

To find your own way is to follow your bliss.

And then he says, "The writer must be true to truth." And that's a killer, because the only way you can describe a human being truly is by describing his imperfections. The perfect human being is uninteresting - the Buddha who leaves the world, you know. It is the imperfections of life that are lovable. And when the writer sends a dart of the true word, it hurts. But it goes with love. This is what Mann called "erotic irony," the love for that which you are killing with your cruel, analytical word.

When an idea is important to a person or culture it will find its way into imagery.