I was nurtured on Greek Mythology and the classical epics. I lived and breathed Homer. Other mythologies - the Russian, the Norse, the Persian, the Indian, Egyptian, etc. - all came later. First and foremost were the Greeks, and they were all living in my head as though I were Zeus and they were a clamoring Chorus of Athenas.

Freedom is not a license to act but a license to exercise free choices in any given situation.

Whenever you go on a trip to visit foreign lands or distant places, remember that they are all someone's home and backyard.

Money is like fire. It is only good when there's just the right amount of it, when it's properly contained and under your control.

Never look directly at the sun. Instead, look at the sunflower.

Clad in metaphor, the world becomes newborn to our senses, like a phoenix. It is the most effective fresh presentation of the elements of our life for our jaded, numbed, even ailing sense of imagination.

I was forgetting that an artist also just stares at a piece of paper or canvas all day. It somehow never occurred to me to connect these two diverse creative modes.