If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.
You're always asking yourself, are you doing the best for your child? And other parents let you know if you're not, just not in a direct way. There's a sense of competition, which is ridiculous because you know deep down you're all suffering.
I'm actually very snobbish about directors. I have to say 'no' all the time. 'No' is the most powerful word in our business. You've got to protect yourself.
To survive it is often necessary to fight and to fight you have to dirty yourself.
One of the disadvantages of poetry over popular music is that if you write a pop song, it naturally gets into people's heads as they listen in the car. You don't have to memorize a Paul Simon song; it's just in your head, and you can sing along. With a poem, you have to will yourself to memorize it.
You're always a little disappointing in person because you can't be the edited essence of yourself.
Don't go telling yourself you're in love with the man he could be; you gotta love the man standing in front of you right now. Simply put, love the person not the potential! Otherwise, he will always be disappointing to you. And whose fault is that?
Reproach is shame, blame, disgrace, disapproval and a disrespectful attitude toward yourself. When you're under reproach, your behavior shows it.
I'm fascinated with what happens to the creative output when you isolate yourself from the approval and disapproval of the people around you.
Surrounding yourself with a great team that is really discerning and not pushing or rushing into a certain direction that doesn't seem like a progressive flow is really important.
Discipline yourself, and others won't need to.
It's absolutely true that unless you can instill discipline upon yourself, you will never be able to lead others.
It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner.
Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can't put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable, then you will never grow. You will never change. You'll never learn.
Most of my interests in terms of writing are dark, so it's discordant how much I try to lock into the vibe of wherever I'm at. Inhabiting the life of the imagination is the nature of survival strategy - you build yourself little worlds to enjoy.
Don't give up. There are too many nay-sayers out there who will try to discourage you. Don't listen to them. The only one who can make you give up is yourself.
You're not supposed to stop and listen and spy on people practicing. It's supposed to be a private thing. But it's when you come face-to-face with yourself and you look for your flaws and you try to fix them yourself, it's a really intimidating process. It can be very discouraging.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
You have to look at the discrepancy between what you hoped and imagined and the reality of yourself and all your shortcomings.
We shouldn't force ourselves to do something that really is just painful to us. If there is a discrepancy between what we are doing or putting our bodies through and then what our minds are telling us, you really have to look at yourself, and the most essential part of it is the pleasure aspect.
