Chely Wright:

I was raised to know the difference between right and wrong. Telling my story is the right thing to do.

Like Me, p. 3

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

The more effective the art, the more likely the viewer's first reaction will be anger or denial -- followed immediately by a search for someone to blame.

Art & Fear, p. 67

Ernest Hemingway:

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

Andy Stanley:

Visions are born in the soul of a man or woman who is consumed with the tension between what is and what could be. Anyone who is emotionally involved -- frustrated, brokenhearted, maybe even angry -- about the way things are in light of the way they believe things could be, is a candidate for a vision. Visions form in the hearts of those who are dissatisfied with the status quo.

Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, p. 17

Hugh MacLeod:

It's hard to sell out if nobody has bought in.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 91

Steven Pressfield:

If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are.

The War of Art, p. 39

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

When Columbus returned from the New World and proclaimed the earth was round, almost everyone else went right on believing the earth was flat. Then they died -- and the next generation grew up believing the world was round. That's how people change their minds.

Art & Fear, p. 57

Nikki Giovanni:

…life is precious, which is all we poets...are trying to say

"Poetry"

Andy Stanley:

Where definitions fall short, a story often achieves clarity.

Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, p. 7

Steve McVey:

By God's grace, I'm done with judging people. I've learned I can't even change me, let alone somebody else. I want to just love people, no matter who they are, how they live, what they believe or anything else that used to separate me from others created and loved by our Father. Their behavior isn't my business. That's up to God. Loving them is my business.

"Musings of a Middle-Aged Man"

Hugh MacLeod:

Diluting your product to make it more "commercial" will just make people like it less.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 90

Steven Pressfield:

Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement.

The War of Art, p. 38

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

When you are lazy, your art is lazy; when you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.

Art & Fear, p. 49

Andy Stanley:

Authors are somewhat like NASCAR drivers. They drive alone. But they don't race alone. Racing is a team sport.

Visioneering: God's Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Vision, Acknowledgments

Chely Wright:

I don’t feel like I’m coming out. I feel like I’m coming together.

Mark Matousek:

There's a myth among amateurs, optimists and fools that beyond a certain level of achievement, famous artists retire to some kind of Elysium where criticism no longer wounds and work materializes without their effort.

Steven Pressfield:

When we see others beginning to live their authentic selves, it drives us crazy if we have not lived out our own.

The War of Art, p. 38

Hugh MacLeod:

Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it's a primal calling.

Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, p. 74

Napoleon Bonaparte:

I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get.

David Bayles & Ted Orland:

Yet this humanity is the ultimate source of your work; your perfectionism denies you the very thing you need to get your work done. Getting on with your work requires a recognition that perfection itself is (paradoxically) a flawed concept.

Art & Fear, p. 31

Steven Pressfield:

But the fundamentalist reserves his greatest creativity for the fashioning of Satan, the image of his foe, in opposition to which he defines and gives meaning to his own life.

The War of Art, p. 35