Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box

I understand things that are American, for better or worse.

It's vital to establish some rituals-automatic but decisive patterns of behavior-at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way.

Confidence is a trait that has to be earned honestly and refreshed constantly; you have to work as hard to protect your skills as you did to develop them. . . The one thing that creative souls around the world have in common is that they all have to practice to maintain their skills. Art is a vast democracy of habit.

Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.

I've survived inattention. I hope to God I survive attention.

The more you know, the better you can imagine.