Mastery is playing whatever you're capable of playing-every time-WITHOUT THINKING.
Intellect has to surrender to instinct when it is time to play.
Nothing in music is hard, just unfamiliar.
It is good to view things as familiar or unfamiliar, rather than as difficult or easy.
Music can shoot through the musician like lightening through the sky if that music is unobstructed by thoughts.
Just before I play, I like to feel that no-one has ever played the piano before, that I'm in complete virgin territory, and that every note I play is the most beautiful sound I've ever heard.