“Take your well-disciplined strengths, stretch them between the two great opposing poles, because inside human beings is where God learns.”

“Take your practiced powers and stretch them out until they span the chasm between contradictions ... for the god wants to know himself in you.”

“Parents teach children discipline for two different, indeed diametrically opposed, reasons: to render the child submissive to them and to make him independent of them. Only a self-disciplined person can be obedient; and only such a person can be autonomous.”

“All great artists know that part of their task is to light up the distance between two human beings.”

“The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is living fully and just existing.”

“Finish. The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish. Don't talk about doing it. Do it. Finish.”