We often put off doing something for as long as possible, then as we finally make the decision and step into the action, we're surprised by its relative ease. We're left to wonder why we dreaded it until we realize that most of life's actions are within our reach, but decisions take willpower.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

Talent without craft is like fuel without an engine, it burns wildly but accomplishes nothing.

Influence is just persuasion in slow motion.

Do research. Feed your talent. Research not only wins the war on cliche, it's the key to victory over fear and it's cousin, depression.

Whereas life separates meaning from emotion, art unites them. Story is an instrument by which you create such epiphanies at will, the phenomenon known as aesthetic emotion...Life on its own, without art to shape it, leaves you in confusion and chaos, but aesthetic emotion harmonizes what you know with what you feel to give you a heightened awareness and a sureness of your place in reality.

No matter our talent, we all know in the midnight of our souls that 90 percent of what we do is less than our best.