It's one thing to lie to ourselves. It's another thing to believe it.

Next morning I went over to Paul’s for coffee and told him I had finished. “Good for you,” he said without looking up. “Start the next one today.

Do you love your idea? Does it feel right on instinct? Are you willing to bleed for it?

Traditional publishers will be dominant, and they should be because they really do assure quality. But eBooks, which are huge already, are going to eclipse everything. They will save traditional publishing the way DVDs saved movie studios (for a while) and they'll greatly expand the number of readers.

That’s why an artist must be a warrior and, like all warriors, artists over time acquire modesty and humility. They may, some of them, conduct themselves flamboyantly in public. But alone with the work they are chaste and humble. They know they are not the source of the creations they bring into being. They only facilitate. They carry. They are the willing and skilled instruments of the gods and goddesses they serve.

Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness.

The highest treason a crab can commit is to make a leap for the rim of the bucket.