The value of having an inner map of the world as it is (not as it's broadcast) is this: it allows you to know that your task is larger than yourself. If you choose, just by virtue of being a decent person, you are entrusted with passing on something of value through a dark, crazy time-preserving your integrity, in your way, by your acts and your very breathing for those who will build again when this chaos exhausts itself.

I require and enforce as non-interrupted a state of living as you can get in America right now without going off to live by yourself in the mountains.

An artist without obsession isn't worth a damn!

The world of psychology and the world of normal life tends to look down on obsession. It's not good for you, and certainly not good for your relationships. It's not good for a lot of things, but it's the only way to make a work of art.

My spirit life very much depends on my work. My work very much depends on my spirit life. And I pray every day, as part of my own ritual, to a god I believe in, not a god somebody else believes in.

The people you have to lie to, own you. The things you have to lie about, own you.

All paths cause pain, so to chose the safe over the audacious will not give you less pain, only less beauty.