The best experiences and the biggest ideas don't fit into a category. They change it.

Remarkable work is always not on the list, because if it was, it would be commonplace, not remarkable.

I wonder why anyone would hesitate to be generous with their writing. I mean, if you really want to make a living, go to Wall Street and trade oil futures ... We're writers. We're doing something that is inherently a generous act. We're exposing ourselves to the muse and to the things that frighten us. Why do that if you're not willing to be generous? And paradoxically, almost ironically, it turns out that the more generous you are, the more money you make. But that's secondary. For me, the privilege of being generous is why I get to do this.

Canoeing was hard and scary, and the wind could blow you across the lake if you did it wrong. After a year of not doing it right, I could talk to people and get them to sit up straight, take different kinds of chances, to breathe differently, to engage in the moment in the boat. And I changed them, and I changed me in the process.

Say what you believe and see who follows.

Finding new ways, more clever ways to interrupt people doesn't work.

A symptom of the revolution: When we state something is impossible in theory, but then change our minds when we discover that it is possible in practice.