Limits are a secret blessing, and bounty can be a curse.

You may wonder which came first: the skill or the hard work. But that's a moot point. The Zen master cleans his own studio. So should you.

The thing about creativity is, people are going to laugh at it. Get over it.

Well, Mozart is extraordinary not only in that he became virtuoso along the lines of his father, but that he had that compositional gift, that melodic gift. By the time he was four, he was doing piano concertos with harmony in the background.

The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightening bold of inspiration, maybe more. And this routine is available to everyone.

I have a sort of tactility about music. I go into record stores and just run my fingers over it, the spines.

I think Tolstoy had an unbelievably complicated relationship with women.