I used to think that having lots of friends meant that you were happy. That's really not true. Having the right friends means that you're happy.

Most people don't want to work with liars. They'll work with a liar if the liar makes them money and gives them credit, but not if a person's lying extends to not making them money and not giving them credit.

When I go to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, they have wonderful topiary in the shapes of characters. I apply the principle to my life. "Prune away that which is not a Disney princess!" I think Michelangelo said that.

The world will not give you an endowment for your finger-painting. Your finger-painting may be marvelous, but our government and society do not value art adequately. We should fulminate against that and seek to change it, but in the meantime you have to make choices. If you're an artist who likes to have a steady income for yourself, for your children, for your partner, to help you engage in elder care as you take care of your parents or grandparents, that's a good thing.

One of the best practices in the manual of human existence is to assist people who need help when you can safely do so. The best people help those who need help.

Happy to me is not what I thought happy was. Happy is actually better, because it includes room for sadness. A definition of success must leave room for failure, because it's part of it.

I've discovered that every time I've reached a milestone I think I'm there, but there's another there waiting for me.