God will always believe in your own ability to mend your own ways.

— Bob Dylan, GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award acceptance speech 1991

In writing, habit seems to be a much stronger force than either willpower or inspiration. Consequently there must be some little quality of fierceness until the habit pattern of a certain number of words is established. There is no possibility, in me at least, of saying, “I’ll do it if I feel like it.” One never feels like awaking day after day. In

“Mountains should be climbed with as little effort as possible, and without desire. The reality of your own nature should determine the speed. If you become restless, speed up. If you become winded, slow down. You climb the mountain in an equilibrium between restlessness and exhaustion.”

— Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

“Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

But there is no reward at

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficient

Taste is developing a refined sense of judgment and finding the balance that produces a pleasing and integrated whole.

One thing I don’t like about computers in the home is they cheat people out of the experience of becoming. The important life experiences are food, sex, but also becoming. And this involves reading, studying, practicing an art, whatever.

— Kurt Vonnegut, 1999