Play, creativity, art, spontaneity, all these experiences are their own rewards and are blocked when we perform for reward or punishment, profit or loss.

We provide both irritation and inspiration for each other- the grist for each other's pearl making.

The Western Idea of practice is to acquire a skill. It is very much related to your work ethic, which enjoins us to endure struggle or boredom now in return for future rewards. The Eastern idea of practice, on the other hand, is to create the person, or rather to actualize or reveal the complete person who is already there.... Not only is practice necessary to art, it is art.

This is the evolutionary value of play- play makes us flexible. By reinterpreting reality and begetting novelty, we keep from becoming rigid. Play enables us to rearrange our capacities and our very identity so that they can be used in unforeseen ways.

Play cannot be defined, because in play all definitions slither, dance, combine, break apart, and recombine.

The conception, composition, practice, and performance of a piece of music can blossom in a single moment.

If we split practice from the real thing, neither one of them will be very real.