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.

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.

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.

Most of all, be honest with yourself and make sure those in political office, our so called public servants, are being honest, holding them accountable for their actions!

I don't know what the next American revolution is going to be like, but we might be able to imagine it if your imagination were rich enough.

Flowers are not made by singing Oh how beautiful and sitting in the shade.

Publishing a short story can sometimes feel like shouting into the dark... your words come out, and then nothing... but I don't think that's why I tend to write novels rather than stories.

I love diversity.

If you see the light at the end of the tunnel youre looking through binoculars the wrong way.

They declaim against the passions without bothering to think that it is from their flame philosophy lights its torch.

People are really interested in the concept of eternal youth in this plastic-surgery culture.

I love art that haunts me, that stays with me, that is left embedded in my mind. I don't really think there is any use for owning or collecting art; it is more about remembering and preserving it in the minds eye and allowing it into your cultural DNA.

People that I have known that have been extremely creative, people in the business, they have always been influenced by their mothers. Their mothers are the ones that created whatever it is - the urge to create.

All I ask is that we compare human consciousness with spirochete ecology.

The fidelity question is difficult for me. Society has made us believe we're supposed to be monogamous when we're not killer whales, or whatever the monogamous species is.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.

No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why.

What I'm hoping is that every album I'm going to do will give my audience something different, and that they'll grow as I do.

The big jobs are for the ones who can handle the small ones.

An open-minded person sees life without boundaries, whereas a close-minded person can only see what's beyond their eyes.

I've always thought really good artists in general are overqualified. You're paid to stand there and do a line, but the guy has probably gone to drama school... but they have developed it to be just, like, one specific line.

You want good ratings, you want people to like the show, you want to be appreciated for the hard work you put in. You don't always get it. Every show is not beloved.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.

I've stepped more into my business and really... taken control for how I want that to be.

I think it's important for little girls growing up, and young women, to have one in every walk of life. So from that point of view, I'm proud to be a role model!

I want to have children, please God, with a woman that I love and that I'm very attracted to.