In the margin for error lies all our room for maneuver.

You only really discover the strength of your spine when your back is against the wall.

The mind revels in conjecture. Where information is lacking, it will gladly fill in the gaps.

Metaphors hide in plain sight, and their influence is largely unconscious. We should mind our metaphors, though, because metaphors make up our minds.

By bringing together what we know and what we don't know through analogy, metaphorical thinking strikes the spark that ignites discovery.

A simile is just a metaphor with the scaffolding still up.

Sometimes, you need a door slammed in your face before you can hear opportunity knock.

Heroism often results as a response to extreme events.

Aphorisms are literature's hand luggage. Light and compact, they fit easily into the overhead compartment of your brain.

Metaphor impinges on everything, allowing us - poets and non-poets alike - to experience and think about the world in fluid, unusual ways.

Advice is given freely because so much of it is worthless.

Keep up with what's causing chaos in your own field.

Thinking of Plan B muddies up your chances of succeeding at Plan A.

No baseball pitcher would be worth a darn without a catcher who could handle the hot fastball.

If you like to bake with eggs, you can substitute Ener-G egg replacer, bananas, tofu, or many other ingredients. You get the hang of it quickly enough.

Drawing must seek for interest, not for admiration. Because admiration wears quickly.

The mind conceives with pain, but it brings forth with delight.

[In old age] there is a childlike innocence, often, that has nothing to do with the childishness of senility. The moments become precious . . .

Make the iron hot by striking it.

I'm a pretty romantic person, I love little notes.

As the render is to the building, and the blueprint to the machine, so sport is to social existence.