Quote of the Day

My philosophy is very simple: If you see something that is not right, not fair, not just -- you have a moral obligation to say something, to do something.  Start trouble.

-- Rep. John Lewis

Quote of the Day

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes -- including you.

-- Anne Lamott

Quote of the Day

The phone gives us a lot but it takes away three key elements of discovery: loneliness, uncertainty, and boredom.  Those have always been where creative ideas come from.

-- Lynda Barry

Quote of the Day

The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes of all political and social life a mass illness.  Without this housecleaning, we cannot begin to see.  Unless we see, we cannot think.

-- Thomas Merton

Quote of the Day

What's clear is that it's healthiest if we make a daily appointment to disconnect from the world so that we can connect with ourselves.  Kids, jobs, sleep, and a thousand other things will get in the way, but we have to find our own sacred space, our own sacred time.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 43

Quote of the Day

You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don't know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don't know who your friends are, you don't know what you owe anybody, you don't know what anybody owes to you.  This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be.  This is the place of creative incubation.  At first you may find that nothing happens there.  But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.

-- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Quote of the Day

Silence and solitude are crucial [to think and practice your art].  Our modern world of push notifications, 24/7 news cycles, and constant contact is almost completely inhospitable to the kind of retreat artists must make in order to focus deeply on their work.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 39

Quote of the Day

Creativity is about connection -- you must be connected to others in order to be inspired and share your own work -- but it is also about disconnection.  You must retreat from the world long enough to think, practice your art, and bring forth something worth sharing with others.  You must play a little hide-and-seek in order to produce something worth being found.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 39

Quote of the Day

Finish every day and be done with it.  You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quote of the Day

Your list is your past and your future.  Carry at all times.  Prioritize: today, this week, and eventually.  You will someday die with items still on your list, but for now, while you live, your list helps prioritize what can be done in your limited time.

-- Tom Sachs

Quote of the Day

A list is a collection with purpose.

-- Adam Savage

Quote of the Day

Leonardo da Vinci made "to-learn" lists.  He'd get up in the morning and write down everything he wanted to learn that day.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 25

Quote of the Day

Lists bring order to the chaotic universe.  I love making lists.  Whenever I need to figure out my life, I make a list.  A list gets all your ideas out of your head and clears the mental space so you're actually able to do something about them.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 23

Quote of the Day

I make lists to keep my anxiety level down.  If I write down fifteen things to be done, I lose that vague, nagging sense that there are an overwhelming number of things to be done, all of which are on the brink of being forgotten.

-- Mary Roach