Rachel Held Evans:

The first thing I noticed while reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John was that Christians who claim to take the Bible literally or who say they obey all of his teachings without "picking and choosing" are either liars or homeless.

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 103

Larry Kramer:

We must understand and confront the unprecedented.

Randy Pausch:

It's a thrill to fulfill your own childhood dreams, but as you get older, you may find that enabling the dreams of others is even more fun.

The Last Lecture, p. 117

Jeff Pearlman:

One of the greatest things about morality is how those who claim to act on its behalf are often the ones drinking from the emptiest cups.

Sports Illustrated, "Belmont gets it all wrong in ousting woman's soccer coach Lisa Howe"

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Making art depends upon noticing things -- things about yourself, your methods, your subject matter.

Art & Fear, p. 109

John Updike:

What art offers is space -- a certain breathing room for the spirit.

Audre Lorde:

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

Rachel Held Evans:

It's like, as soon as you're able to step into someone else's shoes or look at the world from a different perspective, everything you believe becomes less certain, or at least less black and white.

Evolving in Monkey Town, p. 85

Hugh MacLeod:

No matter where your adventure takes you, most of what is truly meaningful is still to be found revolving around the mundane stuff you did before you embarked on your adventure. The stuff that'll still be going on long after you and I are both dead, long after our contribution to the world is forgotten. But often, one needs to have that big adventure before truly appreciating how utterly wonderful all that simple, mundane stuff actually is.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 147

Randy Pausch:

No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse. At the same time, it is often within your power to make them better.

The Last Lecture, p. 88

Wendy Gritter:

For a faith or conviction that is demanded is a weak and unsustainable faith indeed.

Bridging the Gap, "Living Like Jesus & Letting Go of Control"

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Some people who make art are driven by inspiration, others by provocation, still others by desperation. Artmaking grants access to worlds that may be dangerous, sacred, forbidden, seductive, or all of the above. It grants access to worlds you may otherwise never fully engage.

Art & Fear, p. 108

Oscar Wilde:

It is tragic how few people ever "possess their souls" before they die... Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Audre Lorde:

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

Holbrook Jackson:

Happiness is a form of courage.

Dave Hickey:

Don't let life ruin your day.

Hugh MacLeod:

The size of the endeavor doesn't matter as much as how meaningful it becomes to you.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 146

Randy Pausch:

Brick walls are there for a reason. And once you get over them -- even if someone has practically had to throw you over -- it can be helpful to others to tell them how you did it.

The Last Lecture, p. 174

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

In making art you declare what is important.

Art & Fear, p. 108

Dorothy Day:

We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.

Audre Lorde:

In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.

Martin Luther King Jr.:

There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Charles Krause:

People join cults unwittingly. Even reasonable, intelligent people can be fooled by demagogues, and too often, the deeper they become involved in one of these quasi-religious or quasi-political groups, the more difficult it may be to see the potential dangers.

Seductive Poison, Forward

Hugh MacLeod:

I've often been asked by young people, which do I think is a better career choice: "Creativity" or "Money"? I say both are the wrong answer. The best thing to be in this world is an effective human being. Sometimes that requires money, sometimes it doesn't. Be ready for either when it happens.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 129-130

Randy Pausch:

Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.

The Last Lecture, p. 151

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

As a maker of art you are custodian of issues larger than self.

Art & Fear, p. 108

Thomas Kuhn:

The answers you get depend upon the questions you ask.

Audre Lorde:

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.

Martin Luther King Jr.:

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.

Deborah Layton:

When our own thoughts are forbidden, when our questions are not allowed and our doubts are punished, when contacts and friendships outside of the organization are censored, we are being abused for an end that never justifies its means. When our heart aches knowing we have made friendships and secret attachments that will be forever forbidden if we leave, we are in danger. When we consider staying in a group because we cannot bear the loss, disappointment, and sorrow our leaving will cause for ourselves and those we have come to love, we are in a cult.

Seductive Poison, p. 299

Richard Rohr:

In the second half of life you might look a little more like a liberal, but the real difference is that you have been overtaken by love and let go of fear. That is the meat, the muscle, and the message.

Randy Pausch:

The brick walls are there for a reason. They're not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.

The Last Lecture, p. 51-52

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

We do not remember those artists who followed the rules more diligently than anyone else. We remember those who made the art from which the "rules" inevitably follow.

Art & Fear, p. 95

Lord Acton:

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Timothy Kincaid:

...tolerance is not defined by the extent to which it allows intolerance to prevail.

"My Existence Is Not a Violation of Your Rights"

Martin Luther King Jr.:

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca:

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

Hugh MacLeod:

Suddenly you realize that you're just not into the same things you once were. You used to be into staying up all night, going to parties, and now you'd rather stay in and read a book. Sure, it sounds boring, but hey, sometimes "boring" can be a lot of fun. Especially if it's on your own terms.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 127

Randy Pausch:

I always liked telling my students: "Go out and do for others what somebody did for you."

The Last Lecture, p. 158

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

For the working artist, the very best writings on art are not analytical or chronological; they are autobiographical. The artist, after all, was there.

Art & Fear, p. 91-92

Malcolm Forbes:

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.

John Shelby Spong:

Religion almost inevitably tries to take our anxiety away from us by claiming that which religion can never deliver -- absolute certainty.

Martin Luther King Jr.:

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But...the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

John Shore:

The extent to which we fail to take personally the persecution of others is the extent to which we fail as Christians.

Hugh MacLeod:

Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 124

Randy Pausch:

The person who failed often knows how to avoid future failures.

The Last Lecture, p. 149

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

What artists learn from other artists is not so much history or technique (although we learn tons of that too); what we really gain from the artmaking of others is courage-by-association.

Art & Fear, p. 89-90

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Strong and weak, wise and foolish, gifted or ungifted, pious or impious, the diverse individuals in the community are no longer incentives for talking and judging and condemning, and thus excuses for self-justification. They are rather cause for rejoicing in one another and serving one another.

Life Together

St. Augustine:

In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it.

Martin Luther King Jr.:

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothings pains some people more than having to think.

Hugh MacLeod:

Remain frugal. The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed. This is true even after you've "made it."

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 123

Timothy Kincaid:

All we can do is try and live our lives with dignity, decency, and self-worth, to spread the truth about sexuality as it is further developed, and to be consistently compassionate to those who are caught in a conundrum.

"The Great Conundrum"

Randy Pausch:

When we're connected to others, we become better people.

The Last Lecture, p. 176

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The security of a monthly paycheck mixes poorly with the risk-taking of artistic inquiry.

Art & Fear, p. 88

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

I can never know beforehand how God's image should appear in others. That image always manifests a completely new and unique form that come solely from God's free and sovereign creation. To me the sight may seem strange, even ungodly. But God creates every man in the likeness of His Son, the Crucified. After all, even that image certainly looked strange and ungodly to me before I grasped it.

Life Together

Tony Campolo:

To reach out to the LGBT communities and join them in their cry for justice, and to champion their efforts for inclusion in our churches, is to simply imitate Christ. Being followers of Jesus requires this.

Guest post on LoveIsAnOrientation.com

Martin Luther King Jr.:

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.

Hugh MacLeod:

Anyone can be an idealist. Anyone can be a cynic. The hard part lies somewhere in the middle -- that is, being human.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 117

Henri Nouwen:

For as long as you can remember, you have been a pleaser, depending on others to give you an identity. You need not look at this only in a negative way. You wanted to give your heart to others, and you did so quickly and easily. But now you are being asked to let go of all these self-made props and trust that God is enough for you. You must stop being a pleaser and reclaim your identity as a free self.

C. S. Lewis:

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

You can corral good arguments, successful examples, prominent graduates -- and insufferable converts -- to champion any of a whole flock of possible pathways.

Art & Fear, p. 86

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

God does not will that I should fashion the other person according to the image that seems good to me, that is, in my own image; rather in his very freedom from me God made this person in His image.

Life Together

Randy Pausch:

Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

The Last Lecture, p. 148

Steven Pressfield:

An amateur lets the negative opinion of others unman him.

The War of Art, p. 91

Hugh MacLeod:

Life is messy; cliches are clean and tidy.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 117

Deborah Layton:

Nobody joins a cult. Nobody joins something they think's going to hurt them. You join a religious organization, you join a political movement and you join with people you really like.

As featured on "The Life and Death of Peoples Temple"

NOTE: Deborah Layton was a Peoples Temple member and is a Jonestown survivor. She is also the author of Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor Story of Life and Death in The Peoples Temple.

Albert Einstein:

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Learning is the natural reward of meetings with remarkable ideas, and remarkable people.

Art & Fear, p. 84

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

God did not make this person as I would have made him. He did not give him to me as a brother for me to dominate and control, but in order that I might find within him the Creator. Now the other person, in the freedom with which he was created, becomes the occasion of joy, whereas before he was only a nuisance and an affliction.

Life Together

Jon Snoddy:

If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you.

As told by Randy Pausch in The Last Lecture, p. 145

Steven Pressfield:

In order for a book (or any project or enterprise) to hold our attention for the length of time it takes to unfold itself, it has to plug into some internal perplexity or passion that is of paramount important to us.

The War of Art, p. 46

Hugh MacLeod:

Part of being a master is learning how to sing in nobody else's voice but your own.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 103

Max Lucado:

Go to the effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Do it. The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.

Mocha with Max: Friendly Thoughts & Simple Truths from the Writings of Max Lucado, p. 149

Andrew Marin:

Respond to everything—because if you’re not telling your story someone else is.

Part 1: How Jesus Handled Critics

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Your life is a paradigm of the process of being an artist, a witness and record to the way time and circumstance, event and emotion, courage and fear surround the making of art.

Art & Fear, p. 83

Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

Each individual will make a matchless discovery. He will be able to cease from constantly scrutinizing the other person, judging him, condemning him, putting him in his particular place where he can gain ascendancy over him and thus doing violence to him as a person. Now he can allow the brother to exist as a completely free person, as God made him to be. His view expands and, to his amazement, for the first time he sees, shining within his brethren, the richness of God’s creative glory.

Life Together

Randy Pausch:

If nobody ever worried about what was in other people's heads, we'd all be 33 percent more effective in our lives and on our jobs.

The Last Lecture, p. 141

Nikki Giovanni:

when i die i hope no one who ever hurt me cries
and if they cry i hope their eyes fall out
and a million maggots that had made up their brains
crawl from the empty holes and devour the flesh
that covered the evil that passed itself off as a person
that i probably tried
to love

First stanza from "When I Die"

Hugh MacLeod:

To me, it's about what you are going to do with the short time you have left on this earth.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 97

Steven Pressfield:

The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.

The War of Art, p. 43

Oscar Wilde:

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Each new piece of your art enlarges our reality.

Art & Fear, p. 69

Mother Teresa:

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

Randy Pausch:

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

The Last Lecture, p. 17

A. A. Milne:

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

Hugh MacLeod:

Vigorous debate about commercialism in art is a path well trodden, and not a place where one is going to come up with many new, earth-shattering insights. But a lot of people like to dwell on it because it keeps them from ever having to journey into unknown territory. It's safe. It allows you to have strong emotions and opinions without any real risk to yourself. Without your having to do any of the actual hard work involved in the making and selling of something you believe in.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 96-97

Steven Pressfield:

The professional tackles the project that will make him stretch.

The War of Art, p. 40

H. L. Mencken:

The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

In making art you court the unknown, and with it the paranoia of those who fear what change might bring.

Art & Fear, p. 68

Blaise Pascal:

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Randy Pausch:

...my dad always taught me that when there's an elephant in the room, introduce it.

The Last Lecture, p. 16

Ernest Hemingway:

A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.

Hugh MacLeod:

Making a big deal over your creative shtick to other people is the kiss of death.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 93

Steven Pressfield:

Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

The War of Art, p. 40

Martin Luther King Jr.:

Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?" But, conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

Chely Wright:

I was raised to know the difference between right and wrong. Telling my story is the right thing to do.

Like Me, p. 3

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The more effective the art, the more likely the viewer's first reaction will be anger or denial -- followed immediately by a search for someone to blame.

Art & Fear, p. 67

Ernest Hemingway:

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

Andy Stanley:

Visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. Anyone who is emotionally involved -- frustrated, brokenhearted, maybe even angry -- about the way things are in light of the way they believe things could be, is a candidate for a vision. Visions form in the hearts of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, p. 17

Hugh MacLeod:

It's hard to sell out if nobody has bought in.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 91

Steven Pressfield:

If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are.

The War of Art, p. 39

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

When Columbus returned from the New World and proclaimed the earth was round, almost everyone else went right on believing the earth was flat. Then they died -- and the next generation grew up believing the world was round. That's how people change their minds.

Art & Fear, p. 57

Nikki Giovanni:

…life is precious, which is all we poets...are trying to say

"Poetry"

Andy Stanley:

Where definitions fall short, a story often achieves clarity.

Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, p. 7

Steve McVey:

By God's grace, I'm done with judging people. I've learned I can't even change me, let alone somebody else. I want to just love people, no matter who they are, how they live, what they believe or anything else that used to separate me from others created and loved by our Father. Their behavior isn't my business. That's up to God. Loving them is my business.

"Musings of a Middle-Aged Man"

Hugh MacLeod:

Diluting your product to make it more "commercial" will just make people like it less.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 90

Steven Pressfield:

Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement.

The War of Art, p. 38

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.

Art & Fear, p. 49

Andy Stanley:

Authors are somewhat like NASCAR drivers. They drive alone. But they don't race alone. Racing is a team sport.

Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, Acknowledgments

Chely Wright:

I don’t feel like I’m coming out. I feel like I’m coming together.

Mark Matousek:

There's a myth among amateurs, optimists and fools that beyond a certain level of achievement, famous artists retire to some kind of Elysium where criticism no longer wounds and work materializes without their effort.

Steven Pressfield:

When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.

The War of Art, p. 38

Hugh MacLeod:

Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it's a primal calling.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 74

Napoleon Bonaparte:

I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Yet this humanity is the ultimate source of your work; your perfectionism denies you the very thing you need to get your work done. Getting on with your work requires a recognition that perfection itself is (paradoxically) a flawed concept.

Art & Fear, p. 31

Steven Pressfield:

But the fundamentalist reserves his greatest creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life.

The War of Art, p. 35

Hugh MacLeod:

The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 73

Marilynne Robinson:

Love is holy because it is like grace – the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.

Gilead, p. 209

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

To demand perfection is to deny your ordinary (and universal) humanity, as though you would be better off without it.

Art & Fear, p. 30-31

Steven Pressfield:

Fundamentalism is the philosophy of the powerless, the conquered, the displaced and the dispossessed.

The War of Art, p. 34

Chely Wright:

Isn’t that the best thing you can ever imagine -- that your story can facilitate ease for someone else?

Hugh MacLeod:

The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do from what you are not.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 66

Voltaire:

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

If you think good work is somehow synonymous with perfect work, you are headed for big trouble. Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error. Inevitably, your work (like, uh, the preceding syllogism…) will be flawed. Why? Because you're a human being, and only human beings, warts and all, make art. Without warts it is not clear what you would be, but clearly you wouldn't be one of us.

Art & Fear, p. 29

Mickey Spillane:

Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.

Steven Pressfield:

Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront Resistance?

The War of Art, "The Unlived Life"

Hugh MacLeod:

When the guy at the top of the ladder you're climbing describes the view from the top as "unrewarding," be concerned.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 65

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

There is probably no clearer waste of psychic energy than worrying about how much talent you have -- and probably no worry more common. This is true even among artists of considerable accomplishment.

Art & Fear, p. 26

Steven Pressfield:

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.

The War of Art, p. 165

Dr. Seuss:

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

Hugh MacLeod:

Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 64

Reading on the Run

I packed three books in my vacation bags last week – A. J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer by Chely Wright, and Philip Yancey’s Finding God in Unexpected Places. While I only touched the latter, I enjoyed the little that I did read and look forward to picking up the others in the near future.

Steven Pressfield:

If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

The War of Art, p. 165

Jens Lekman:

The beauty of the collage technique is that you’re using sounds that have never met and were never supposed to meet. You introduce them to each other, at first they’re a bit shy, clumsy, staring at their shoes. But you can sense there’s something there. So you cut and paste a little bit and by the end of the song you can spot them in the corner, holding hands.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

It's easy to imagine that real artists know what they're doing, and that they -- unlike you -- are entitled to feel good about themselves and their art. Fear that you are not a real artist causes you to undervalue your work.

Art & Fear, p. 24

Hugh MacLeod:

Is your plan unique? Is there nobody else doing it? Then I'd be excited. A little scared, maybe, but excited.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 50

Steven Pressfield:

We were put here on earth to act as agents of the Infinite, to bring into existence that which is not yet, but which will be, through us.

The War of Art, p. 161-162

William S. Burroughs:

All writing is in fact cut-ups. A collage of words read heard overheard. What else?

Lewis Hyde:

Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself. Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The fear that you're only pretending to do art is the (readily predictable) consequence of doubting your own artistic credentials.

Art & Fear, p. 24

Hugh MacLeod:

Your plan for getting your work out there has to be as original as the actual work, perhaps even more so. The work has to create a totally new market.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 48

Steven Pressfield:

The artist and the mother are vehicles, not originators. They don't create the new life, they only bear it. This is why birth is such a humbling experience. The new mom weeps in awe at the little miracle in her arms. She knows it came out of her but not from her, through her but not of her.

The War of Art, p. 156

Mary Pipher:

That is our challenge: To cultivate lives of reflection, love, and joy and still somehow manage to do our share for this beautiful broken planet of ours.

Writing to Change the World, p. 242

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

In a general way, fears about yourself prevent you from doing your best work, while fears about your reception by others prevent you from doing your own work.

Art & Fear, p. 23

Hugh MacLeod:

You may never reach the summit; for that you will be forgiven. But if you don't make at least one serious attempt to get above the snow line, years later you will find yourself lying on your deathbed, and all you will feel is emptiness.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 39

Maya Angelou:

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Amy to Perform at Women's Work

Amy will be sharing some of her poetry this Sunday at the fourth annual Women's Work festival. Come and enjoy an evening of original poetry and spoken word presented by women wordsmiths.

Sunday, May 9, at 5:30 p.m.
Z. Alexander Looby Theater
Looby Branch Library
2301 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.
Nashville, TN
$5

For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, visit Tennessee Women's Theater Project online.

Steven Pressfield:

To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.

The War of Art, p. 151

Mary Pipher:

Writing can be love made visible. In the end, one of the best ways to truly change readers is to love them.

Writing to Change the World, p. 241

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

…most artists don't daydream about making great art -- they daydream about having made great art.

Art & Fear, p. 17

Stanley Kunitz:

The poem in the head is always perfect. Resistance begins when you try to convert it into language.

Hugh MacLeod:

Nobody can tell you if what you're doing is good, meaningful, or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 23

Richard Hugo:

I believe that the moment you declare yourself great you put a curse on yourself. You can get away with it in baseball (Johnny Bench) or boxing (Muhammed Ali) if you have the physical gifts to back it up. But the poet who says "I am the greatest" has damned himself forever.

The Triggering Town, p. 70

Steven Pressfield:

Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.

The War of Art, p. 146

Mary Pipher:

The finest thing we can do in life is to grow a soul and then use it in the service of humankind.

Writing to Change the World, p. 241

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

…in making art you bring your highest skills to bear upon the materials and ideas you care about. Art is a high calling…

Art & Fear, p. 14

Hugh MacLeod:

Big offers are a good thing, but personal sovereignty matters a whole lot more over the long run.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 20

Richard Hugo:

There are those usual people who try desperately to appear unusual and there are unusual people who try to appear usual. Most poets I've met are from the latter and much smaller group.

The Triggering Town, p. 34

Steven Pressfield:

The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts.

The War of Art, p. 93

Mary Pipher:

Our writing is one way in which we express our moral sense and our integrity. Morality is not a delicate consommé; it is a thick and spicy jambong, a concoction of fish, shrimp, squid, chilies, vegetables, and noodles, served in a flavorful dark broth. It is pungent, intriguing, and sustaining.

Writing to Change the World, p. 240

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Lincoln doubted his capacity to express what needed to be said at Gettysburg, yet pushed ahead anyway, knowing he was doing the best he could to present the ideas he needed to share.

Art & Fear, p. 19-20

Hugh MacLeod:

Publishers are just middlemen. That's all. If artists could remember that more often, they'd save themselves a lot of aggravation.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 20

Steven Pressfield:

The professional loves her work. She is invested in it wholeheartedly. But she does not forget that the work is not her. Her artistic self contains many works and many performances. Already the next is percolating inside her. The next will be better, and the one after that better still.

The War of Art, p. 88

Mary Pipher:

Good storytellers heal the world. The stories that save us are the stories that give us what some Buddhists call a "bigger container." They open us up to new understanding and growth. Bigger container stories expand our circle of caring, and "complexify" the universe rather than simplify it. They encourage us to risk more for the world's sake rather than making us cynical, jaded, and cautious about it.

Writing to Change the World, p. 239-240

Highly Recommended New Book

Young artist Austin Kleon's debut, Newspaper Blackout, is available in stores everywhere, as of today. A Harper Perennial release, Newspaper Blackout features Kleon's fresh take on poetry.

Art: Up Close and Personal with Jim Sherraden

Tonight I will attend a talk by Jim Sherraden, manager, chief designer and archivist at Hatch Show Print. Hatch is one of the country's oldest, working letterpress print shops. Sherraden is co-author of Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop. I own a number of Hatch prints and hope to have Sherraden sign my copy of the book. For more details about this evening's event, click here.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

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

Art & Fear, p. 14

Hugh MacLeod:

Being good at anything is like figure skating -- the definition of being good at it is being able to make it look easy. But it never is easy. Ever. That's what the stupidly wrong people conveniently forget.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 11

Richard Hugo:

Writing is a way of saying you and the world have a chance.

The Triggering Town, p. 72

Steven Pressfield:

The amateur believes he must first overcome his fear; then he can do his work. The professional knows that fear can never be overcome. He knows there is no such thing as a fearless warrior or a dread-free artist.

The War of Art, p. 79

Mary Pipher:

Poets write to create beauty, tell the truth, speak for those without voices, comfort the sorrowful, encourage the hopeless, call attention to that which is fragile, and encourage us to be mindful.

Writing to Change the World, p. 233

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Quitting means not starting again -- and art is all about starting again.

Art & Fear, p. 10

Hugh MacLeod:

Doing anything worthwhile takes forever. Ninety percent of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 9

Richard Hugo:

We sweat through poem after poem to realize what dumb animals know by instinct and reveal in their behavior: my life is all I've got. We are well off to know it ourselves, even if our method of learning it is painfully convoluted.

The Triggering Town, p. 72

Steven Pressfield:

The more you love your art/calling/enterprise, the more important its accomplishment is to the evolution of your soul, the more you will fear it and the more Resistance you will experience facing it.

The War of Art, p. 73

Somerset Maugham:

I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o'clock sharp.

Rob Bell:

Do you know that feeling in class when somebody raises his hand and says, "I don't get it," and you feel so relieved that you aren't the only one who isn't getting it? That's what great artists do. This is what great people do. They ask it. They say it. They express it. They put in words what so many others are thinking and feeling and wondering. They affirm that you aren't the only one having this experience.

Drops Like Stars, p. 46-47

Mary Pipher:

Poetry has the gossamer quality of a snowflake and the power of a sword.

Writing to Change the World, p. 229

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The best you can do is make art you care about -- and lots of it!

Art & Fear, p. 6

Hugh MacLeod:

The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 7

Richard Hugo:

It's flattering to be told you are better than someone else, but victories like that do not endure. What endures are your feelings about your work.

The Triggering Town, p. 36

Paul Valery:

Each newcomer feels obliged to do something else, forgetting that if he himself is somebody he will necessarily do that something else.

Frederick Douglass:

If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

Re: the emancipation of West India, August 4, 1857

Steven Pressfield:

We unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing our disposable income to the bottom line of Bullshit, Inc., but only by doing our work.

The War of Art, p. 32

Mary Pipher:

The first step in all writing is observation.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Your job is to learn to work on your work.

Art & Fear, p. 5

Hugh MacLeod:

Good ideas come with a heavy burden, which is why so few people execute them. So few people can handle it.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 2

Richard Hugo:

When we are told in dozens of insidious ways that our lives don't matter, we may be forced to insist, often far too loudly, that they do. A creative-writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters. Your life matters, all right.

The Triggering Town, p. 65

Steven Pressfield:

The best and only thing that one artist can do for another is to serve as an example and an inspiration.

The War of Art, p. 20

Mary Pipher:

Personal essays allow us to struggle on paper with our deepest questions, and then to share that struggle with others.

Writing to Change the World, p. 213

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.

Art & Fear, p. 3

Mary Karr:

That's why I pray and poetize: to be able to see my brothers and sisters despite my own (often petty) agonies, to partake of the majesty that's every sinner's birthright.

Sinners Welcome, p. 93

Hugh MacLeod:

Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships. That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 2

Richard Hugo:

Scholars look for final truths they will never find. Creative writers concern themselves with possibilities that are always there to the receptive.

The Triggering Town, p. 56

Steven Pressfield:

Henry Fonda was still throwing up before each stage performance, even when he was seventy-five. In other words, fear doesn't go away. The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day.

The War of Art, p. 14

Mary Pipher:

Only by facing our own grief fully can we do the work necessary to alleviate the world's grief.

Writing to Change the World, p. 208

Hugh MacLeod:

The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will be able to give you.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 1

Richard Hugo:

Quest for a self is fundamental to poetry.

The Triggering Town, p. 33

Dizzy Gillespie:

You can’t steal a gift. Bird [Charlie Parker] gave the world his music, and if you can hear it you can have it.

Steven Pressfield:

Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.

The War of Art, p. 12

Mary Pipher:

The deeper we dive into our own experience, and the more honest and insightful we are in reporting, the more we connect to all other humans.

Writing to Change the World, p. 206

Richard Hugo:

Then there's that banal, tiresome question: can writing be taught? Yes it can and no it can't. Ultimately the most important things a poet will learn about writing are from himself in the process.

The Triggering Town, p. 33

Mary Karr:

Poetry and prayer alike offer such instantaneous connection -- one person groping from a dark place to meet with another in an instant that strikes fire.

Sinners Welcome, p. 92

Steven Pressfield:

If you believe in God (and I do) you must declare Resistance evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius.

The War of Art, "The Unlived Life"

Abraham Lincoln:

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.

Jim Jarmusch:

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.

Mary Pipher:

Personal essays connect the events in our personal lives to greater world events.

Writing to Change the World, p. 206

Richard Hugo:

The young poet is too often paying attention to the big things and can't be bothered with little matters like that. But little matters like that are what make and break poems, and if a teacher can make a poet aware of it, he has given him a generous shove in the only direction. In poetry, the big things tend to take care of themselves.

The Triggering Town, p. 32

Audre Lorde:

Perhaps ... I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am a woman, because I am Black, because I am a lesbian, because I am myself -- a Black woman warrior poet doing my work -- come to ask you, are you doing yours?

"The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action"

Steven Pressfield:

Late at night have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be?

The War of Art, "The Unlived Life"

Mary Pipher:

My best advice is to love your audiences. Be present with them. Form a small community in the time you have together. If you love them as neighbors and family members, they will know it, and they will allow you into their hearts. Then you can create moments for them in which transformation is possible.

Writing to Change the World, p. 203

Richard Hugo:

Good poets have obsessive ears.

The Triggering Town, p. 29

Steven Pressfield:

Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.

The War of Art, "The Unlived Life"

William Zinsser:

Writers are the custodians of memory, and that’s what you must become if you want to leave some kind of record of your life…

How to Write a Memoir

Mary Pipher:

Public speaking is a weird mixture of stress, drudgery, and moments of grace.

Writing to Change the World, p. 197

Richard Hugo:

When (Theodore Roethke) read his favorites aloud, Yeats, Hopkins, Auden, Thomas, Kunitz, Bogan, poets with "good ears," something happened that happens all too infrequently in a classroom. If a student wasn't a complete auditory clod, he could feel himself falling in love with the sounds of words. To Roethke, that was the heart and soul of poetry. And that was his strength as a teacher: he gave students a love of the sound of language. His classes were clinics. He performed therapy on the ear.

The Triggering Town, p. 28

Steven Pressfield:

There's a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don't, and the secret is this: It's not the writing part that's hard. What's hard is the sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.

The War of Art, "What I Know"

Robert McKee:

When inspiration touches talent, she gives birth to truth and beauty.

Excerpt from the Foreward to Steven Pressfield's The War of Art

John Shore:

Believe you’re a genius. Hey, someone’s gotta be. Why not you? And it’s surely not your goal to be a mediocre writer, is it? Believe you’ve got a unique, valuable, indispensable, irreplaceable voice. Because you do.

"My Last, Best 10 Tips on How to Make It as a Writer," JohnShore.com

Mary Pipher:

Success means we have done our best. We have not squandered our gifts or ignored our responsibilities. We have given our time and talents to help others. We have used our freedom to free someone else. Success is not fame or awards; it is having our ideas discussed by other people.

Writing to Change the World, p. 162-163

Richard Hugo:

Assumptions lie behind the work of all writers. The writer is unaware of most of them, and many of them are weird. Often the weirder the better. Words love the ridiculous areas of our minds. But silly or solid, assumptions are necessary elements in a successful base of writing operations. It is important that a poet not question his or her assumptions, at least not in the middle of composition. Finish the poem first, then worry, if you have to, about being right or sane.

The Triggering Town, p. 19

Ethiopian Proverb:

When spiderwebs unite, they can tie up a lion.

John Shore:

Get an agent. Trying to publish a book with one of the larger, mainstream book publishers without an agent is like trying to fly without wings.

"My Last, Best 10 Tips on How to Make It as a Writer," JohnShore.com

Martin Luther King Jr.:

Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual.

"Loving Your Enemies," Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Ala., November 1957

Mary Pipher:

The truth is, most preaching is to the choir. Choirs produce almost all the important social action in our world. The people most likely to read us are people who think like we do.

Writing to Change the World, p. 154

Carl Jung:

Infinite nuances are needed if justice is to be done to individual human beings.

Richard Hugo:

Auden was wrong. Poets take some things far more seriously than other people, though he was right to the extent that they are not the same things others would take seriously or often even notice.

The Triggering Town, p. 18

Bookin' It in 2009

I read more books in 2009 than I have in any year previous. The following 10 titles are the books that impacted me the most in '09, in alphabetical order.

1. Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians by Candace Chellew-Hodge

2. The Children Are Free: Reexamining the Biblical Evidence on Same-sex Relationships by Rev. Jeff Miner and John Tyler Connoley

3. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

4. If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit by Brenda Ueland

5. The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey

6. Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community by Andrew Marin

7. Mocha With Max: Friendly Thoughts & Simple Truths from the Writings of Max Lucado

8. Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics by Tony Campolo

9. Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America by Mel White

10. Writing to Change the World by Mary Pipher

Meeting a Master

I had the privilege of meeting author Tony Campolo this past Friday. Campolo is not only a prolific writer, but a gifted speaker and professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University, as well. Last year I read his book Red Letter Christians, a book that made my forthcoming "Bookin' It in 2009" list. Having authored over 30 books, Campolo's latest, Choose Love Not Power: How to Right the World's Wrongs from a Place of Weakness, was released just last month.

John Shore:

People in publishing are just like everyone else in the world, and everyone prefers to do business with people they know, or at least people who know people they know. Buy a Rolodex. Get busy emailing, phoning, writing, networking. Be proud; never act like you need anyone more than they need you. But make it so that when as many people as possible do need someone, they think of you.

"My Last, Best 10 Tips on How to Make It as a Writer," JohnShore.com

William Stafford:

We live in an occupied country, misunderstood. Justice will take us millions of intricate moves.

Mary Pipher:

The best writers enlarge the points of view of their readers. They create overarching metaphors and build bigger frames that allow readers to understand this world more deeply.

Writing to Change the World, p. 142

Ted Kooser:

If you keep the shadow of that reader -- like a whiff of perfume -- in the room where you write, you will be a better writer.