Making Art Is A Rite Of Initiation.

Most Artists, Ashamed Of Their Need For Encouragement, Try To Carry Their Work To Term Like A Secret Pregnancy.

Do What Intrigues You, Explore What Interests You; Think Mystery, Not Mastery.

Writing Is Like Listening To A Melody Line In My Head. Note By Note, It Knows Where It Wants To Go. I Follow It And Lay It Down. I Can Pare It, Shape It, And Polish It Later...my Job Is To Take Down The Dribs And Drabs - To Free-associate, If You Will, Knowing That The Associations Have Their Own Plans For Where We're Going With All This.

At Root, A Pearl Is A 'disturbance' A Beauty Caused By Something That Isn't Supposed To Be There, About Which Something Needs To Be Done. It Is The Interruption Of Equilibrium That Creates Beauty. Beauty Is A Response To Provocation, To Intrusion. ... The Pearl's Beauty Is Made As A Result Of Insult.

You Are Either Losing Your Mind -- Or Gaining Your Soul.