Our greatest battle is to become ourselves, in the face of adversity.

As resistance works to keep us from becoming who we were born to be, equal and opposite powers are counterpoised against it. These are our allies and angels.

We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.

Making a judgment, taking a stand and then acting against an injustice or acting to support excellence is the stuff of the everyman hero. If you are an aspiring artist and you wish to avoid “judgments,” you'll find that you have nothing to say.

Be too dumb to quit and too stubborn to back off.

The artist cannot look to others to validate his efforts or his calling. If you don't believe me, ask Van Gogh, who produced masterpiece after masterpiece and never found a buyer in his whole life.

We feed it [Resistance] with power by our fear of it. Master that fear and we conquer Resistance.