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.

If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

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.

I guess what I want to say to us artists and entrepreneurs is that conventional yardsticks of success don't apply to all enterprises. Labors of love count.

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

Don't cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you've got.

The Principle of Priority states (a) you must know the difference between what is urgent and what is important, and (b) you must do what’s important first.