I started formal piano training when I was 4. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. I had German. And shorthand.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn't mean I haven't wanted it to be excellent.

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

Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.

No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.

If you only do what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won't fail. You'll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that's failure by erosion

You don't get into the mood to create – it's discipline.

Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead.

More often than not I've found, a rut is a consequence of sticking to tried and tested methods that don't take into account how you or the world has changed.

If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.

Chocolate is God's apology for brocolli

You can't put a price tag on creativity

Snails do not despair for having short legs, but rejoice for being able to travel long distances in spite of them.

When you are in love, it means that the person you love is of great personal, selfish importance to you and to your life.

The one surefire key to victory as a Christian in this fallen world is to be filled with the Holy Spirit—that is, to be completely submitted to and empowered by him.

When you can't remember why you're hurt that's when you're healed. When you have to work real hard to re-create the pain and you can't quite get there that's when you're better.

Without adventure civilization is in full decay. ... The great fact [is] that in their day the great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past.

This is the gift all writers seek-to write language that incandesces yet does not melt.

You can pretty much trace when the big individual indebtedness kicked in, and it was when the credit card became generally available.

A friend gathers all the pieces and gives them back in the right order.