“Several factors besides skill are more significant in professional writers than in most amateurs. One is love of the surface level of language: the sound of it; the taste of it on the tongue; what it can be made to do in virtuosic passages that exist only for their own sake, like cadenzas in baroque concerti. Writers in love with their tools are not unlike surgeons obsessed with their scalpels, or Arctic sled racers who sleep among their dogs even when they don't have to.” WritingMadeLanguageSoundSleepLevelsDogTasteSkillsToolsSakeTongueSurfaceSignificantFactorsObsessedPassagesSurgeonsArcticBaroqueRacersScalpels Book:The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain Source: The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain
“There may be such a thing as habitual luck. People who are said to be lucky at cards probably have certain hidden talents for those games in which skill plays a role. It is like hidden parameters in physics, this ability that does not surface and that I like to call "habitual luck".” PeopleMayDoeSaidPlayCertainGamesAbilityRolesTalentLuckySkillsLuckSurfacePhysicsCardsHabitualParametersHidden Talents Author:Stanislaw Ulam
“Living in intention through acceptance, responsibility, pro-active choice, and the willingness to be ordinary, will move fear aside and allow intuition to surface. All of those skills teach us to be inner focused and aware of who we are becoming. That is powerful. That changes lives.” MovingChoicesPowerfulResponsibilityTeachPowerAcceptanceBecomingSkillsOrdinaryIntentionIntuitionActiveFocusedSurfaceLife ChangingWho We AreWillingness Book:Fearless Living Source: Fearless Living
“It can be helpful to remember that the enlightened mind and the ordinary mind are two sides of the same coin. The mind is like the sea, which can be rough on the surface, with mountainous waves stirred up by ferocious wind, but calm and peaceful at the bottom. Sometimes we can catch sight of this peaceful mind even in times of trouble. These glimpses of peace show us that we may have more inner resources to draw upon than we had realized. With skill and patience, we can learn how to be in touch with our peaceful selves.” MindMayTwoSelfSometimesShowsRememberSidesTroubleSeaWindSkillsDrawsOrdinaryResourcesSightBottomCalmWaveSurfacePeacefulLife ChangingEnlightenedHelpfulRoughGlimpseCoinsTwo SidesTimes Of TroublePeaceful Mind Author:Tulku Thondup
“The reason the art world doesn't respond to Kinkade is because none - not one - of his ideas about subject-matter, surface, color, composition, touch, scale, form, or skill is remotely original. They're all cliche and already told.” WorldArtIdeasMatterReasonFormSubjectsColorSkillsOriginalsSurfaceScalesCompositionClicheSubject MatterArt World Author:Jerry Saltz
“My God, he couldn't help thinking, how terrible it is to be that age, to have emotions so near the surface that the slightest turbulence causes them to boil over. That, very simply, was what adulthood must be all about -- acquiring the skill to bury things more deeply. Out of sight and, whenever possible, out of mind.” ThinkingMindHelpingAgeCausesEmotionTerribleSkillsSightSurfaceAdulthoodTurbulence Author:Richard Russo