Flat fields produce mediocre grapes, but rolling hills produce the greatest grapes. Why? Because the vines must struggle for survival.

Mozart. Vivaldi. Van Gogh. Stretched their genius on struggle, stress and survival.

Speaking of line, what artist of line was ever able to find more depth and volume than Hirschfeld? He was an illustrator and a caricaturist, but first and foremost, an artist.

Self-taught are those without formal education. Most self-taught artists have missing ingredients to their work.

All artists are protected by copyright... and we should be the first to respect copyright.

It is a lifetime effort to come to grips with being an artistic person.

How do you define a poet? It's very simple. Anyone declaring that he is a poet, is a poet.

A basis for much of the pain women suffer in real life is they must somehow resolve their devotion to men.

The significant element that is common to Rivera, Siqueros, Picasso, Pollock, Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo is the expression of pain.

Then again, if the plant is slow growing, and you are getting older, you may want to start with a larger plant. I find myself buying larger plants each year.

SINNERS are those who pretend to teach meditation

On every page, confidence fights with self-doubt. Every sentence is an act of faith. Why would anybody want to do it?

Poor fellow, he suffers from files.

If you are sad, if you are heartbroken, make yourself up, dress up, add more lipstick and attack.

I think all the characters in 'American Horror Story,' which is why I love it, are looking for some sense of meaning, and also it's their form of happiness.

Our responding to life's unfairness with sympathy... may be the surest proof of all of God's reality.

The answers I remember longest are the ones that answer questions that I didn't think of asking.

When I'm really stressed emotionally, I say to myself that there's only so much I can do to change things. Life happens on life's terms. Then, I go for a run.

There were too many ears that listened for others besides themselves, and too many tongues that wagged to those they shouldn't.

When we associate with the virtuous we form ourselves in imitation of their virtues, or at least lose, every day, something of our faults.