Rita Mae Brown:

Book tours are like boot camp but with little sleep and less food.

Rita Will, p. 361

Austin Kleon:

Once you put your work into the world, you have no control over the way people will react to it.  Ironically, really good work often appears to be effortless.  People will say, "Why didn't I think of that?"  They won't see the years of toil and sweat that went into it.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 112

Jewelle Gomez:

First, the bad news: The mainstream publishing world will always marginalize you because it thinks no one cares what women of color have to say.  Now, the good news: If you care passionately about what we have to say, you'll love to write no matter how marginalized you might be, and you won't be alone out there on the margins.

The Letter Q, p. 146-147

Seth Godin:

Please stop waiting for a map.  We reward those who draw maps, not those who follow them.

Poke the Box, p. 34

Rita Mae Brown:

My friends are all smarter than I am.  That may be the smartest thing about me: I surround myself with people who are above me and then I try to catch up.

Rita Will, p. 471

Paula Gilovich:

A couple things you should know.  All people up close are insane.  All lives are bizarre ... That said, however you can do it, earn the freedom to live exactly how you want, and let part of that living be purely of your own invention.  Nothing you've ever seen before.

The Letter Q, p. 225

Austin Kleon:

The trouble with creative work: Sometimes by the time people catch on to what's valuable about what you do, you're either a) bored to death with it, or b) dead.  You can't go looking for validation from external sources.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 112

Seth Godin:

If you hide your spark, bury your ideas, keep your questions and notions from the team, you have hurt them as badly as if you had stolen a laptop and fenced it on eBay.

Poke the Box, p. 64

Nick Burd:

When you realize that someone doesn't like you, don't dwell on it.  You do not need everyone to like you.  Anyone who feels they need to be liked by everyone most likely doesn't realize how exhausting this would be if it were to actually happen.  Be thankful that there are those who want to ignore you.  There is only one you.  Charge admission.

The Letter Q, p. 212

Hugh MacLeod:

The best way to be successful, in this hypercompetitive world of ours, is to find something you REALLY love doing and then kick ass at it. 

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 2

Rita Mae Brown:

Reading or going to the theater allows me to spend time with the best minds of many generations.

Rita Will, p. 431

Doug Wright:

Don't merely accept the fact that you were born gay; treasure it.  You have a proud legacy: Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Tchaikovsky, Gertrude Stein, Walt Whitman, Alan Turing, James Baldwin, Willa Cather, and Tennessee Williams, just to name a few.

The Letter Q, p. 41