To have a style is to be stuck.

Grit is the stubborn refusal to quit.

We need to be willing to risk embarrassment, ask silly questions, surround ourselves with people who don't know what we're talking about. We need to leave behind the safety of our expertise.

What you discover when you look at creativity from the perspective of the brain is that it is universal. We're all creative all of the time, we can't help but be creative.

When we venture beyond the edge of our knowledge, all we have is art.

The answer will only arrive after we stop looking for it.

In fact, the only way to remain creative over time--to not be undone by our expertise--is to experiment with ignorance, to stare at things we don't fully understand.

While human nature largely determines how we hear the notes, it is nurture that lets us hear the music.

Rejection process is not fun. It's the red pen on the page, the discarded sketch, sometimes is the only way forward.

there simply is no way to describe the past without lying. Our memories are not like fiction. They are fiction.

The best way to solve a problem? Try explaining it to somebody outside your field.

You have to have the power to employ pain, to repent, to be illuminated, you must have the opportunity and even the time.

Battles for truth are fought all alone but at the end its a victory for many.

Stressful energy arises when you think some future moment is more important than the present moment, and the doing becomes only a means to an end.

Well, I try not to think about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is and I don't think anybody does.

I can’t tell you just how wonderful she is. I don’t want you to know. I don’t want any one to know.

Karate-do begins with courtesy and ends with rei.

I believe neither in what I touch nor what I see. I only believe in what I do not see, and solely in what I feel.

When Americans invade Iraq, Bush says, we will be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people, proving that taking out Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.

Do you need anything before I go? I want you to return my wits, I long to say.

We are proud to have with us the poet lariat of Chicago.