The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work.

Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.

Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it's for failure.

The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.

To yield to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than we are and were born to be.

...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.

The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.

We must do our work for its own sake, not for fortune or attention or applause.

The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn't talk about it. She does her work.

The awakening an artist must be ruthless, not only with herself but with others.

A sacrament--like marriage--means living a life better than your natural instincts, so that you're modeling God. And God never gives up.

I don't need drugs to make my life tragic.

You cannot travel within and stand still without.

Just in case you thought elephants were all sweetness, I can attest to the fact that this one had the time of her life scaring the bejeezus out of those dudes.

The Bible isn't quick to give answers; it mainly gives the Answer.

I was 82 years old before Who's Who thought I was enough of a big shot to do a piece on me.

The world is always young again for just a few moments at the dawn.

The conquest of war and the pursuit of social justice... must become our grand preoccupation and magnificent obsession.

Before becoming an actor I kind of just wanted to paint and live somewhere and do something low-key and artistic.

The large banking interests were deeply interested in the World War because of the wide opportunities for large profits.