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Yep. I never was like anybody else. Bessie Stringfield, Motorcycle Queen of Miami
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Comparison is the thief of almost everything good within us. Lee Crutchley, Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
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I am learning every day to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be to inspire me and not terrify me. Tracee Ellis Ross
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All of our days here are numbered. We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than not to act at all. Nick Cave, 20,000 Days on Earth
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If you have a ‘passion for writing’ and never do it, you don’t have a passion for writing. Jake Seliger
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There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any. Hugh Laurie
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Something wonderful happens when we pack up and execute a pilgrimage to the place where our heart’s true action lies. The universe notices. The Muse approves. Steven Pressfield
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I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned. Yayoi Kusama
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Throughout this book I’ve chosen to capitalize both “Black” and “White” when describing people. Lower case “black” and “white” refer to the colors found in a box of crayons. Upper case “Black” and “White” instead speak to lived, racialized, and politicized identities, and as such, I consider them proper adjectives. By capitalizing the terms, I acknowledge that they constitute groups of people no different in organization than those ethnicities whose names are capitalized such as African American, Caribbean American, Latino and the like. Dr. Yaba Blay, One Drops: Shifting the Lens on Race
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…So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, which moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. William Cullen Bryant, Thanatopsis (final stanza)
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Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from. Seth Godin
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I’ve had my ups and downs, my fair share of bumpy roads and heavy winds. That’s what made me what I am today. Now I stand here before you. What you see is a body crafted to perfection, a pair of legs engineered to defy the laws of physics. And a mindset to master the most epic of splits. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Epic Split Volvo commercial
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Every time I have had a problem, I have confronted it with the ax of art. Yayoi Kusama
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The things that make us different, those are our superpowers. Lena Waithe
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I made my first film when I was 35, so, I firmly believe that you don’t have to be one thing in life. If you’re doing something, and you have a desire to do something different, give it a try. Ava DuVernay
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Just because I was invited didn’t seem a good enough reason to attend. Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
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We’re trying to use this time in a way that can be most productive to our sanity and also our art. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz cowriters/directors of the 2020 movie, Antebellum
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Writing is one of the few professions in which you can psychoanalyze yourself, get rid of hostilities and frustrations in public, and get paid for it. Octavia Butler
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Artists have to be completely unafraid to test the ideas that they have. Artists have to keep pushing the envelope and not be afraid to do what comes to them. That’s probably why there are so many cases of artists who lead strange lives. You can’t get there without going where your passion takes you. Dale Chihuly
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As a man, there’s no emotion you really can show but anger, and anger is the cork in the bottle that holds down your other emotions. James McLeary
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A writer is supposed to write. If he appears on television or as a public speaker, so much the better or so much the worse, but the public persona is one thing. On the public platform or on television, I have to sound as if I know what I’m talking about. It’s antithetical to the effort you make at the typewriter, where you don’t know a damned thing. And you have to know you don’t know it. The moment you carry the persona to the typewriter, you are finished. James Baldwin
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I find myself blindly flooring it and seeing what happens. Hiro Murai
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Focused on process, our creative life retains a sense of adventure. Focused on product, the same creative life can feel foolish or barren. Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
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A society that separates the mind from the body is going to create all kinds of dysfunction. Dr. Gabor Mate
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Story is a sublime practice that makes us recognizable to ourselves. Stephen Jenkinson
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Creativity is not magic…In recent years all kinds of artists, from legendary musicians to best-selling authors, have told us that creativity is magic. They state this as if it’s an immutable truth. I can promise you, it’s most definitely not…Creativity is natural, ordinary, and routine. Creativity is hard work... There is no magic in churning out logo design after logo design for peanuts. There is no magic in shooting back-to-back weddings every weekend of a beautiful summer. There is no magic in not sleeping for a week while you make the final (final!!!!) revisions to your manuscript. Lee Crutchley, Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
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Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats. Howard Aiken
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RESISTANCE WILL KILL YOU. If you don’t believe me, look around at friends and family who have talent and ambition in spades ... but are drinking, doping, abusing themselves and their loved ones, wasting their lives because they can’t get out of their own way and do the work they were put on this planet to do. Trust me: you will NEVER, NEVER achieve your dreams until you learn to recognize, confront, and overcome that voice in your head that is your own Resistance. Steven Pressfield
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You can only know a good wine if you have first tasted a bad one. Paulo Coelho
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When you feel yourself becoming angry, resentful, or exhausted, pay attention to where you haven't set a healthy boundary. Crystal Andrus
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Adversity is just change we haven’t adapted to yet. Aimee Mullins
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Discomfort is very much part of my master plan. Jonathan Lethem
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We want a story from your heart. If it’s not from your heart, don’t tell it. Hugh Morgan Hill (Brother Blue)
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It’s terribly important not to know too many rules. If you know rules and obstacles you spend a lot of time dealing with them. If you don’t know there’s a rule you just do it. Beryl Vertue
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Growing up, I realized quite quickly that people hate being called racist more than they hate racism itself. Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, Ace of Spades
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We should keep a careful diary of our moments of envy: they are our covert guides to what we should try to do next. Alain De Botton
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Always take the work seriously. Never take yourself seriously. Paul Newman
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I fight pain, anxiety, and fear every day, and the only method I have found that relieves my illness is to keep creating art. I followed the thread of art and somehow discovered a path that would allow me to live. Yayoi Kusama
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It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated… it is finished when it surrenders. Ben Stein
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Six months of being quarantined at home taught me more about life than 25 years of education. Rathath Alsarhan, YouTube commenter on the video The Illusion of Money, Time & Ego by Alan Watts
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Death doesn’t burden your life. It animates your life. The centrality of death gives you the chance to live, because it says, “Here’s the bad news: it’s not going to last.” Stephen Jenkinson
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It’s very essential for an artist to be a risk taker. I don’t think you become a very good artist if you can’t. Dale Chihuly
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We have to stop believing it when people say “Black women or women of color can’t be aggressive in the workplace.” That’s a dog whistle for us to be quiet. What we are is passionate. We have to be done with being quiet and start defining what it means to show up and take up space in a meeting, on a project, and in an organization. We have to be bold. We have to be courageous. We have to stand and make a clearing for us to create, whether it’s within an organization or we decide to move out and start our own business. Karen Senteio, from The Business of Race
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Burnout is not a badge of honor. Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
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Creativity requires activity, and this is not good news to most of us. It makes us responsible, and we tend to hate that. You mean I have to do something in order to feel better? Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way
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You have a tendency to forget that you are not the center of everyone’s universe because you are the center of your own. Lee Crutchley, Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
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Listen with your gut, not your head. Sanford Meisner
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Most people can’t handle boredom. That means they can’t stay on one thing until they get good at it. And they wonder why they’re unhappy. 50 Cent
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Did Quentin Tarantino focus-group Reservoir Dogs? Steven Pressfield
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News is what somebody does not want you to print. All the rest is advertising. William Randolph Hearst
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It’s almost impossible to reconcile creativity with cleanliness. The sculptor gets metal dust all over his studio. The writer must wade through a clutter of notes, books, and crumpled drafts to get to her desk. The rock musician must weave through a tangle of cables, black boxes, guitar stands, and song notes to sit down and create. The business strategist must navigate a thicket of scribbles, arrows, and boxes on his whiteboard while avoiding the distractions of multi-colored sticky notes on stacks of must-read articles. Marty Neumeier, from The 46 Rules of Genius
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Start before you’re ready. Don’t prepare to begin. Steven Pressfield
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There is a big difference between danger and fear. Paulo Coelho
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Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. Frank Zappa
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If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all. That’s the only advice you can give anybody. And it’s not advice, it’s an observation. James Baldwin.
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If you are any good at all, you know you can be better. Eric Clapton
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We have no money, we shall have to think. Winston Churchill
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Your ideas will be as unique as your fingerprint. The secret ingredient is not magic, it’s you. Lee Crutchley, Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
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It’s a hard thing to leave any deeply routined life, even if you hate it. John Steinbeck
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I don’t like to second-guess what’s good and what’s bad. I mostly like to work. Dale Chihuly
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As a culture, we have confused velocity with accomplishment. We “run” ourselves ragged. Convinced that if we just do more and go faster we will succeed, we often lose the pulse of our own lives. We can find it again by walking. Julia Cameron, The Vein of Gold
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An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words. Sanford Meisner
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Note carefully that food, work, and sex are all good in themselves. It is the abuse of them that makes them creativity issues. Julia Cameron
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Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life. Linus Pauling
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I have a flood of ideas in my mind. I just follow my vision. Yayoi Kusama
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Fame is not the same as success, and in our true souls we know that. We know – and have felt – success at the end of a good day’s work. But fame? It is addictive, and it always leaves us hungry. Julia Cameron
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Quit your complaining. It’s not the world’s fault that you wanted to be an artist. It’s not the world’s job to enjoy the films you make, and it’s certainly not the world’s obligation to pay for your dreams. Nobody wants to hear it. Steal a camera if you have to but stop whining and get back to work. Werner Herzog
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Rejecting a new idea because it’s not immediately successful is like giving up a baby because it can’t hold a job. Marty Neumeier, The 46 Rules of Genius
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You can’t plan for a revelation, but you can do things to make it attractive for one. Lynda Barry
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Doing new things takes a lot of energy and strength. It’s very tiring to make things happen, to learn how to master a skill, to push fears aside. Most people would rather just go with the flow; it’s much easier. But it’s not very interesting. Iris Apfel
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It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. Audre Lorde
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I don’t think one can find hope in other people’s decisions. Chinonye Chukwu, screenwriter, director, Clemency
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Laughter is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one place. Josh Billings
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The way I work is by doing a lot of work. And out of that comes ideas, refinement, more work, more ideas. Dale Chihuly
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From an ecological point of view, the world’s not going to just crap out. The thin membrane that makes our life sustainable is threatened, but the whole planetary enterprise is not in jeopardy. The question is whether there will be any humans left. Stephen Jenkinson
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Don’t wait for permission to do something creative. Ava DuVernay
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The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. Alvin Toffler
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Creativity simply takes as long as it takes. Marty Neumeier, The 46 Rules of Genius
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Don’t downgrade your dream just to fit your reality. Upgrade your conviction to match your destiny. Stuart Scott
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I hold the self-proclaimed record for being the World’s Oldest Living Teenager and I intend to keep it that way. Iris Apfel
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Depression can best be defined as a biochemical disorder with a genetic component with early exposure experiences that make it so someone can’t appreciate sunsets. Dr. Robert Sapolsky
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If you don’t define yourself for yourself, you’ll be crushed into other people’s fantasies of you and eaten alive. Audre Lorde
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One of the first steps of living with less is acknowledging that you have too much. Christine Platt
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If you’re seeking new information or insights, you’ll need to look beyond your clique, since a clique is a closed system that acts more like a mirror than a window. Marty Neumeier, The 46 Rules of Genius
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We don’t go on because we’re ready. We go on because it’s 11:30. Lorne Michaels
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All of our days here are numbered. We cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than not to act at all. Nick Cave, 20,000 Days on Earth
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There are no big secrets. Just because someone’s famous, or they’re giving a TED talk, or they wrote a book, it doesn’t automatically make them right. They don’t know any big secrets, even if they say they do. Their advice is still just an opinion dressed in a fancy suit. You have to decide which parts of any advice you’re given are right for you. You have to decide how to implement that advice, and you have to act on it. The big secret isn’t a secret at all, it’s you. Lee Crutchley, Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
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You know it’s all right to be wrong, but it’s not all right not to try. Sanford Meisner
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Doing the work points the way to new and better work to be done. Julia Cameron
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Advice is flawed by its very nature because advice can only ever come from our experiences. Even if advice is true, it’s not fact. Lee Crutchley, Nobody Knows What They’re Doing
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The only thing we know for sure is that we will die one day. But before that we can try to do almost anything. Margareta Magnusson, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning
