The pain of being human is that we're all angels imprisoned in vessels of flesh.

The professional is happy to teach.

In the post-epiphanal moment, we have two things going for us that we didn't have ninety seconds earlier: we have reality and we have humility. These are powerful allies. And we have a third force working in our favor: shame. Why is shame good? Because shame can produce the final element we need to change our lives: will.

The truth was, I was enjoying myself. Maybe nobody else liked the stuff I was doing, but I did. I was learning. I was getting better.

whose demands will keep us from turning our energies toward their true course.

an epiphany trashes us. It exposes us and leaves us naked. We see ourselves plain, and it's not a pretty picture.

Yet this is my business. This is my life.

We're struggling here in the trenches. That beauty, that wisdom, those thrills and chills, even that mindless escape on a rainy October afternoon — I want it. Put me down for it. The hero wanders. The hero suffers. The hero returns. You are that hero.

destiny,