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

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.

There is not ultimate breakthrough; what we find in the development of a creative life is an open-ended series of provisional breakthroughs. In this journey there is no endpoint, because it is the journey into the soul.

With too little judgement, we get trash. With too much judgement, we get blockage.

To create, we need both technique and freedom of technique

Every conversation is a form of Jazz. The activity of instantaneous creation is as ordinary to us as breathing.

Play is the taproot from which original art springs. It is the raw stuff that the artist channels with all his learning and technique.