An artist finds solitude even in companionship.

Obsessive-compulsive writers believe they are not worthy of writing in beautiful and expensive notebooks.

Know that it is not the perfection of your penmanship that counts but the quality of your thoughts.

When uncertain as to what you should paint, place your canvas upright at the base of a tree. The shadows of branches and leaves will fall on the canvas and suggest visual images.

When uncertain as to what you should write, sit in front of a tree, look up at its branches and leaves, and contemplate their patterns. Look down at your notebook and go with the first association that comes to your mind.

An Exercise In Developing Dialogue

Record a normal conversation. Transcribe it on paper if necessary.

1) What is the objective of each person in the conversation?

2) Mark the twists and changes that each person in the conversation takes.

Now REWRITE the conversation as dialogue in a play, keeping in mind that the dialogue in every scene in a play must push the premise forward.

3) After deciding what the premise of each person in the conversation is, DELETE all irrelevant passages from the conversation.

4) Rewrite the conversation so that each line pushes its speaker's premise. Be aware of dramatic economy and cross out everything superfluous, i.e., any idea that has already been articulated.

5) Now read through the rewritten conversation. Do emotions play a role in the conversation? If they do, EXAGGERATE each emotion--merely as an exercise--in the conversation.

Reread your work. You have just written a passage of dialogue.

Write and paint as though there's no tomorrow.

Good literature is a magnifying lens of reality.

To every creative and observant person, each day brings at least three pleasant surprises--and most especially to every artist, for an artist is not an artist if nothing surprises him any longer.

At the end of each day, recall and reflect on your three pleasant surprises.

Write and paint not to sell but to change the lives of others.

When you write and when you paint, ask yourself if your work has value not only to yourself and to your country but also to the rest of the world.

Know that "self-expression" is a grade-school and high-school rationale that artistic maturity and evolution always leave that behind.

Whenever you write something, you leave a piece of yourself on what you wrote on.

Thank God that you are infinite, and, because you are infinite, you are inexhaustible.

Write a portrait, draw a face description.

A writer never rises in the morning and wonders what the day will bring him.

To the extent that it is possible, a writer authors his day.

And he succeeds in doing so especially if he has mastered lucid dreaming.