Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin - find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

Furniture should always be comfortable. And always have a piece of art that you made somewhere in the home.

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.

Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books - especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.

Art begins with resistance - at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labor.

Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper the photographer begins with the finished product.

'Georgia' is very personal to me. 'Anniversary Party' was great. 'Anomalisa' is also another one that, particularly, is in my heart and will be forever. I do think it's a masterpiece; I really do.

In 1998, Vanity Fair asked me to write a big piece for them on the 50th anniversary of the New York City Ballet. My life, to a great extent, had been spent at and with the New York City Ballet, and I decided to try it. It was very scary, writing about something I loved so much and had such strong opinions about.

I bought a Cartier nail bracelet to celebrate the fifth anniversary of my blog. It's an investment piece, but it's simple enough to wear every day, and it's something that will last forever.

You don't have to say something directly to affect someone. You can make a piece of music without words that can capture a feeling of tragedy or struggle or anger or triumph. It's the translation of the human experience into another form.

Some days, 24 hours is too much to stay put in, so I take the day hour by hour, moment by moment. I break the task, the challenge, the fear into small, bite-size pieces. I can handle a piece of fear, depression, anger, pain, sadness, loneliness, illness. I actually put my hands up to my face, one next to each eye, like blinders on a horse.

I love vintage shopping, I think it's really fun. And I love the feeling of finding the most amazing piece for less.

Salman was an amazing human being. There are lot of things about him for years, but he's one of the most genuine, helpful guys out there. There's Salman Khan the superhero, and there's that gentle guy who pulls out a charcoal pencil and comes up with some soulful, pure art pieces.

I shop at a lot of vintage stores because the prices are amazing, and I love the idea that there's a history behind the piece I'm wearing.

If life is a checker game, someone else is moving the pieces. It isn't us. Don't be surprised by amazing coincidences. There are no accidents. Consider, as I learned to do, the incredible interconnectedness of all of life.

You know, Johnny Depp has always been a massive inspiration for me and he's somebody who has produced an incredible amount of work, and every single piece that he does is amazing.

Your life is your canvas, and you are the masterpiece. There are a million ways to be kind, amazing, fabulous, creative, bold, and interesting.

Fall in love with the masterpiece, and also the paint on the floor.

Places are never just places in a piece of writing. If they are, the author has failed. Setting is not inert. It is activated by point of view.

A good piece of fiction, in my view, does not offer solutions. Good stories deal with our moral struggles, our uncertainties, our dreams, our blunders, our contradictions, our endless quest for understanding. Good stories do not resolve the mysteries of the human spirit but rather describe and expand up on those mysteries.

What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish.

Forgiveness. The ability to forgive oneself. Stop here for a few breaths and think about this because it is the key to making art, and very possibly the key to finding any semblance of happiness in life. Every time I have set out to translate the book (or story, or hopelessly long essay) that exists in such brilliant detail on the big screen of my limbic system onto a piece of paper (which, let's face it, was once a towering tree crowned with leaves and a home to birds). I grieve for my own lack of talent and intelligence. Every. Single. Time. Were I smarter, more gifted, I could pin down a closer facsimile of the wonders I see. I believe, more than anything, that this grief of constantly having to face down our own inadequacies is what keeps people from being writers. Forgiveness, therefore, is key. I can't write the book I want to write, but I can and will write the book I am capable of writing. Again and again throughout the course of my life I will forgive myself.

When describing nature, a writer should seize upon small details, arranging them so that the reader will see an image in his mind after he closes his eyes. For instance: you will capture the truth of a moonlit night if you'll write that a gleam like starlight shone from the pieces of a broken bottle, and then the dark, plump shadow of a dog or wolf appeared. You will bring life to nature only if you don't shrink from similes that liken its activities to those of humankind.