Art is a war - between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior.

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

Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue.

Tomorrow morning the critic will be gone, but the writer will still be there facing the blank page. Nothing matters but that he keep working.

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.

It may be that the human race is not ready for freedom. The air of liberty may be too rarefied for us to breathe... The paradox seems to be, as Socrates demonstrated long ago, that the truly free individual is free only to the extent of his own self-mastery. While those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them.

You are a writer when you tell yourself you are. No one else's opinion matters. Screw them. You are when you say you are.