The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

The professional respects his craft. He does not consider himself superior to it. He recognizes the contributions of those who have gone before him. He apprentices himself to them.

I believe in previous lives and the Muse—and that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists.

If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you what you have to do.

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

Put your ass where your heart wants to be.

Sometimes, when we're terrified of embracing our true calling, we'll pursue a shadow calling instead. That shadow career is a metaphor for our real career. Its shape is similar, its contours feel tantalizingly the same. But a shadow career entails no real risk. If we fail at a shadow career, the consequences are meaningless to us. Are you pursuing a shadow career?