There's a phrase you hear in Israel: "We're not Jews, we're Israelis." What that means is that the stereotype we're familiar with here in the States of the Diaspora Jew, i.e. Jews in America or Europe or Russia, etc. does not fit at all with the reality of the homegrown "sabras" of Israel.

The professional, though he accepts money, does his work out of love. He has to love it. Otherwise he wouldn’t devote his life to it of his own free will.

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

Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?

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

...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.

When we make our art a practice, when we make our workspace sacred and enter it daily with respect and high intention, then we elevate our actions (even if they're taking place within the profane arena of commerce) beyond ego and above gimme-gimme ambition.