No industry is immune and no occupation is safe. All of us need to begin to think in terms of our own inner strengths, our resilience and resourcefulness, our capacity to adapt and to rely upon ourselves and our families.

The awakening an artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others.

The essence of professionalism is the focus upon the work and its demands, while we are doing it, to the exclusion of all else.

When we turn pro we stop running from our fears. We turn around and face them.

When you're a working writer, sooner or later friends and acquaintances will get you alone and confide that they, too, have a book in them.

The song we’re composing already exists in potential. Our work is to find it.

Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue.