vision is always ahead of execution — and it should be.

The artist’s life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he imagines it to be fast.

Quitting is fundamentally different from stopping. The latter happens all the time. Quitting happens once. Quitting means not starting again — and art is all about starting again.

The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars.

Artists don’t get down to work until the pain of working is exceeded by the pain of not working.

What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit.

We abdicate artistic decision-making to others when we fear that the work itself will not bring us the understanding, acceptance and approval we seek.

One of the basic and difficult lessons every artist must learn is that even the failed pieces are essential.

Conversely, catering to fears of being misunderstood leaves you dependent upon your audience. In the simplest yet most deadly scenario, ideas are diluted to what you imagine your audience can imagine, leading to work that is condescending, arrogant, or both. Worse yet, you discard your own highest vision in the process.