If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill-take it and push it as far as it will go, push it beyond where it has ever been before, push it to the wildest edges of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic.
Tom RobbinsOf the Seven Dwarfs, the only one who shaved was Dopey. That should tell us something about the wisdom of shaving.
Tom RobbinsYou know a trillion times more about art than me. But Iโve learned that it isnโt necessary to know all that much. You just make what you wanna see, right? Itโs a game, right? Itโs like being paid for dreaming.
Tom RobbinsThere is little difference between the Zulu warrior who smeared bis body with lion's fat and the modern woman who dabs hers with expensive perfume. The one was trying to acquire the courage of the king of beasts, the other is attempting to acquire the irresistible sexuality of flowers. The underlying principle is the same.
Tom RobbinsAll a person can do in this life is gather about him his integrity, his imagination, and his individuality โ and with these ever with him, out front and in sharp focus, leap into the dance of experience.
Tom RobbinsSo you think that you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will ever be free.
Tom Robbins