Ignore Everybody

Enlightenment is a house with six billion doors. While we are alive, we intend not to find a door, but to find our own unique door.

Once you "make it", your work is never the same.

Doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have.

Being "ready" means "taking power" and not needing anything from another person in order to be the best in the world.

You do not go in there asking the editor to give you power. You go in there and politely inform the editor that you already have the power.

The minute you become ready is the minute you stop dreaming.

People who are "ready" give off a different vibe than people who are not.

Had Bob Dylan been more of a technical virtuoso, he might not have felt the need to give his song lyrics such power and resonance.

The fact that Turner could not draw human beings very well left him no choice but to improve his landscape paintings, which have no equal.

The successful ones are those capable of figuring out how to circumvent their limitations & how to replace their weaknesses by strengths.

No one can be good at everything. Piccasso was a terrible colorist. Turner could not paint human beings.

Trying to create when you do not feel like it, is like making conversation for the sake of making conversation.

If you have something to do, then do it. If not, you should better go out into the big wide world, have some adventures & refill your well.

Inspiration precedes the desire to create, not the other way around.

Do not worry about finding inspiration; it comes eventually.

Hang out more with the creative people and the real visionaries as well thinking more about their needs and responding accordingly.

The people you trust and vice versa are what will feed you and pay for your kids' college.

It is this red line that demarcates your sovereignty and defines your own private creative domain.

The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do, the less control you will have and the less joy it will bring.

It is highly important to be able to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

You should only care for doing what you like most in the best way ever.

Your plan needs to be unique in order to give you a lot of freedom.

There is no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle.

Do not try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

The price of being a sheep is boredom. The price of being a wolf is loneliness. Choose one or the other with great care.

Good ideas come with a heavy burden, which is why so few people have them and so few people can handle them.

Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships; that is why good ideas are always initially resisted and rejected.

A fancy tool just gives the second rater one more pillar to hide behind.

There is no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership.

The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

True wisdom is impossible to achieve if you are constantly concerned with the thoughts and actions of those around you.

One of the most admirable traits of the creative is the ability to be a nonconformist.

Someone who is creative tends to be flexible and easy going. They do not rattle easily and tend to take life in stride.

Balance the need to make a good living while still maintaining one's creative sovereignty.

The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs: One is the neat, romantic & creative kind, & the other is the kind that pays the bills.

Suddenly quitting one's job is always in direct conflict with the "Romance & Cash Theory".

If you try to make something just to fit your uninformed view of some hypothetical market, you will fail.

Go ahead and make something. Make something really special. Make something amazing that will really blow the mind of anybody who sees it.

The more people click with your idea, the more it will change the world.

The more amazing, the more people will click with your idea.

The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing.

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

Being the exact opposite of all the "Big Plans" we are used to, it is so liberating.

We have to learn doing things that amuse us, even if in a random arbitrary way.

We have to start doing the things that we really like without needing a reason to do so.

We waste a lot of our time trying desperately to pry our career out of the jaws of mediocrity.

The idea does not have to be big; it just has to be yours.

Creativity dwells within each of us and taking the time to nurture it will reap you many rewards.

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

When the ideas start flowing, they come at a pace any sprinter would envy.

When inspiration hits, it is a recalcitrant child. The need to create sits at your feet and kicks its heels until you pay attention.

The very process of creating may sometimes seem to be a manic depressive episode.

Psychologists have discovered a link between those who are highly creative and the tendency to develop Bipolar Disorder.

Throughout history creative genius has been connected with mental illness.