I don't want to lean back into the past, or forward into the future. I don't want to wish the present moment away.

I try to remember that the job - as well as the plight, and the unexpected joy - of the artist is to embrace uncertainty, to be sharpened and honed by it.

It is in the thousands of days of trying, failing, sitting, thinking, resisting, dreaming, raveling, unraveling that we are at our most engaged, alert, and alive.

Writing has been my window-flung wide open to this magnificent, chaotic existence-my way of interpreting everything within my grasp.

Everything you need to know about life can be learned from a genuine and ongoing attempt to write

If I dismiss the ordinary—waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen - I may just miss my life.

I do whatever is necessary in order to maintain the equanimity we all need to withstand the disappointment and rejection that are the lot of every writer, no matter where we are in our careers.

The only graceful thing to do is recognize and embrace what is actually happening, rather than fight against it.

My desk is covered with talismans: pieces of rose quartz, wishing stones from a favorite beach.

How do we live the writer's life? There's only one simple answer: 'we write.'

If you are a writer or any kind of artist, if you change something as fundamental as where you live - the way you live - then I think you change the very instrument that is trying to make the art

I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.

Life, is a chess game you win or loose, but just keep playing.

I come from New York where, if you fall down, someone will pick you up by your wallet.

If you do your fair day's work, you are certain to get your fair day's wage - in praise or pudding, whichever happens to suit your taste.

Large charity doth never soil, but only whitens soft white hands.

Among living artists, George Condo may be the most embraced by the powers that be.

Empowered women who reach tough or unconventional positions make CHOICES not sacrifices

Changes made to please others are unrealistic, but more important, they're unfair to you.

When you put an album out, you can't do any material from the album if people are paying to see you.

If you're born lucky, you don't have to be good.