Hugh MacLeod:

Telling people how great the Internet is is easy.  Everybody knows that already.  The hard part is knowing that the ball is in your court, knowing that now you have this AMAZING tool, knowing that there are no more excuses.  So now you have to go and make stuff.  The Internet can't do that for you; the Internet can only remove certain obstacles.  And it already did that.  A long time ago.  The Internet has made it so that we have no choice but to be creative.

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 110

Laurence Musgrove:

Reading is really the search for the self through others.

Rita Mae Brown:

No one knows the whole truth.  But each of us knows a shredded tatter of it.  The writer must convey that to you or the culture begins to fray.  In order for any society, culture or civilization to breathe or grow it must breathe freely.  That's my job and the job of every one of us who attempts to write.

Rita Will, p. x-xi

Austin Kleon:

Remember "garbage in, garbage out"?  You're only going to be as good as the people you surround yourself with.  In the digital space, that means following the best people online -- the people who are way smarter and better than you, the people who are doing the really interesting work.  Pay attention to what they're talking about, what they're doing, what they're linking to.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 102-103

Seth Godin:

I think we might be afraid of how much freedom we actually have, and how much we're expected to do with that freedom.

Poke the Box, p. 37

Harvey Milk:

I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.  And you...and you...and you...gotta give 'em hope.

Hugh MacLeod:

Entrepreneurship can't be taught.  But it can be unleashed...

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 19

Annie Dillard:

Admire the world for never ending on you -- as you would admire an opponent, without taking your eyes from him, or walking away.

The Writing Life, p. 78

Rita Mae Brown:

It's a strange time to be a writer because a writer is the one person in every culture, in every epoch, married to the truth.

Rita Will, p. x

Austin Kleon:

If there was a secret formula for becoming known, I would give it to you.  But there's only one not-so-secret formula that I know: Do good work and share it with people.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 79

Seth Godin:

Excellence isn't about working extra hard to do what you're told.  It's about taking the initiative to do work you decide is worth doing.

Poke the Box, p. 34

Hugh MacLeod:

90% of what separates successful people and failed people is time, effort and stamina.

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 111

Harold Ramis:

Find the most talented person in the room, and if it's not you, go stand next to him.  Hang out with him.  Try to be helpful.

Annie Dillard:

The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive.  Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you.

The Writing Life, p. 79

Rita Mae Brown:

Try to write your autobiography.  You'll surprise yourself.  The trick is not to take yourself too seriously.  Granted this is the only life you have but still -- take it with a grain of salt.

Rita Will, p. x

Rachel Held Evans:

God makes sense to me under the trees, and God makes sense to me in poetry and prayer, and God makes sense to me in Eucharist and Baptism and community and even creeds...but not in the offering plate, not in the building campaign, not in the pastor-who-shall-not-be-questioned, not in the politics, not in the assumptions about what a good Christian girl ought to be. 

"Sunday Morning"

Austin Kleon:

Enjoy your obscurity while it lasts.  Use it.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 78

Seth Godin:

If ego wasn't a key driver in the process, then creative, generous work would all be anonymous, and it isn't.

Poke the Box, p. 20

Hugh MacLeod:

The Internet works best when we're all trying to share stuff.  Not just the corporations and the Internet millionaires, but you, me, everybody else on this planet.

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 91

Tim Kreider:

It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how best to say it, without getting the hell out of it again.

"The 'Busy' Trap"

Annie Dillard:

One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time.  Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.  The impulse to save something good for a better place later is the signal to spend it now.  Something more will arise for later, something better.

The Writing Life, p. 78-79

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

No single event can awaken within us a stranger whose existence we had never suspected.  To live is to be slowly born.

Frank Schaeffer:

There is a way to live comforted by faith without being part of the evil that constitutes so much of religion.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 263

Austin Kleon:

Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.  I get some of my best ideas when I'm bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners.  I love ironing my shirts -- it's so boring, I almost always get good ideas.  If you're out of ideas, wash the dishes.  Take a really long walk.  Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can.

Steal Like an Artist, p. 67

Seth Godin:

The first rule of doing work that matters: Go to work on a regular basis ... Isaac Asimov wrote and published more than 400 (!) books by typing nonstop from 6 am to noon, every day for forty years.

Poke the Box, p. 18-19

Hugh MacLeod:

Where there's kindness there is hope.

Freedom Is Blogging in Your Underwear, p. 83

David Lowery:

Many in your generation are willing to pay a little extra to buy “fair trade” coffee that insures the workers that harvested the coffee were paid fairly.  Many in your generation will pay a little more to buy clothing and shoes from manufacturers that  certify they don’t use  sweatshops.  Many in your generation pressured Apple to examine working conditions at Foxconn in China.  Your generation is largely responsible for the recent cultural changes that has given more equality to same sex couples.  On nearly every count your generation is much more ethical and fair than my generation.   Except for one thing.  Artist rights.

"Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered"

Annie Dillard:

The artist is willing to give all his or her strength and life to probing with blunt instruments those same secrets no one can describe in any way but with those instruments' faint tracks.

The Writing Life, p. 78

Voltaire:

Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good.

Frank Schaeffer:

If there is one thing all Christians should have learned by now, it's that we -- of all people -- should never, ever cast aspersions on anyone else's sex life.  When it comes to pointing the finger over sexual "sin," the worldwide Christian community -- from the halls of the Vatican and many a Greek, Russian, or Arab Orthodox bishop's palace, to an Evangelical "home church" established in somebody's basement two minutes ago -- is in the morally compromised position of a violent habitual rapist criticizing a shoplifter for stealing a candy bar.

Sex, Mom, and God, p. 247-248