Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for.

What determines your success isn’t “What do you want to enjoy?” The question is, “What pain do you want to sustain?”

People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it.

happiness requires struggle. The positive is the side effect of handling the negative. You can only avoid negative experiences for so long before they come roaring back to life.

The quality of your life is not determined by the quality of your positive experiences but the quality of your negative experiences. And to get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.

99% of your thoughts are useless.

You have the ability to decide what you think. Or, you can choose NOT to think.

“How do I train myself to stop thinking useless thoughts?” Awareness. That’s where it starts. Every time you start drifting off, become aware of it. Just observe your brain. Step outside yourself and just observe the crazy shit you’re thinking about.

Set priorities on Sunday. I outline my weekly priorities and what I want to have accomplished by the following Sunday.

Map out work, play, fit, and push. Work: For each day, I outline my “Top 3,” meaning the three most important things I will have accomplished by the end of the day.

Play: Play enables me to self-express, reflect, and give my ideas space, which shows up positively in my work.

Fit: Movement keeps ideas moving forward so I aim to move my body for at least 30 minutes each day.

Push: Since learning and growth is important to me, I do something that scares me (almost) every day. This may be asking someone whom I deeply respect for an interview or writing about a topic that makes me feel vulnerable.

Batch your days. Batching actions into specific days and creating time for creativity.

CREATE on Monday/Wednesday/Friday: I create holes in my schedule for thinking and creating. On these days, I pay attention to my body and take breaks as needed.

CALLS and MEETINGS on Tuesday/Thursday: When possible, I avoid phone calls and meetings because I find them typically unproductive and often easy to solve via email.

SPONTANEOUS Saturday: With so much structure, I make room for spontaneity. On Saturday, I let go and go where the day takes me. Balancing structure with a day of free-spiritedness makes me feel whole.

INTENTIONAL Sunday: Plan for the week ahead.

It's good to have a manager who shares your interests, or goals. You can presumably trust a husband. I don't know if it's the best way to work. I really shouldn't discuss this.

A bad neighbor is a misfortune, as much as a good one is a great blessing.

The FBI has had a history of sex discrimination complaints brought against it, as well as race discrimination.

It's better to use a curse word than to hurt somebody else, I find.

What I love about Sade other than her smooth and sultry voice is her willingness to be vulnerable. As a powerful, strong and beautiful woman of color, she showed her delicate, passionate side in a world where most of us are putting on a brave face. I love how effortless her style was and how consistent that red lip was!

Either 'Deuce Coupe' has aged badly, or I have. I suspect it's the latter.

Yet, it's our emotions and imperfections that make us human.

Life is like a roll of toilet paper hopefully long and useful but it always ends at the wrong moment.

If you are tired of partisanship over patriotism, you need to vote for a change in direction.

My job has always been to hold a mirror up to nature.

In my experience, sometimes a movie just hits at the wrong time, gets the wrong press, or gets the wrong representation, and it gets misunderstood.

I have found that children are the most open-minded of all my audiences. They are not set in their ways. They are open to ideas.

I wasnt born a natural entrepreneur. I had to be trained.

I have a feeling that about 90% of my life has been shaped by my voice, both as an embarrassment and as an advantage. There was always the terrible incongruity of this deep voice barreling out of this little body. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was aware that it was ludicrous, that it took on an importance that wasn't really there.

At some point, extra incomes don't go to sate desires but to attempt to buy status through 'positional goods' - like the hottest car on the block. The problem is that there can only be one hottest car on the block.

I don't know if I'm going to do any more acting. It's a great job, you know? Make a movie? Why not?

Words are illusions.

It is a good idea to obey all the rules when you're young just so you'll have the strength to break them when you're old.

When I write notes in my journal, I'm just trying to scribble down as much as possible. Later on, I decide whether to follow some of those first impressions or whether to abandon them.

I try to put out what I'm going to wear the night before. It just makes things a little bit more seamless in the mornings. There is definitely, you know, sort of a trusty work uniform - a chic, feminine dress that's easy and versatile.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

Your absence has not taught me how to be alone it merely has shown that when together we cast a single shadow on the wall.

I think mothers are so important. I mean, it seems like such an obvious thing to say, but I think we don't really express that enough, apart from one day a year. So I think we need to come together and celebrate us every day.

The past is what the past is.