I do not plan my fiction any more than I normally plan woodland walks; I follow the path that seems most promising at any given point, not some itinerary decided before entry.

To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.

The mind thinks thoughts that we don't plan. It's not as if we say, 'At 9:10 I'm going to be filled with self-hatred.

Excellence does not require perfection.

Art reaches its greatest peak when devoid of self-conciousness. Freedom discovers man the moment he loses concern over what impression he is making or about to make.

We do not need to have an agreed set of goals before we do something ambitious!

Frequently, beauty is playful like dancing sunlight, it cannot be predicted, and in the most unlikely scene or situation can suddenly emerge. This spontaneity and playfulness often subverts our self-importance and throws our plans and intentions into disarray. Without intending it, we find ourselves coming alive with a sense of celebration and delight. The pedestrian sequence of a working day breaks, a new door opens and the heart recognizes the silent majesty of the ordinary. The things we never notice, like health, friends and love, emerge from their subdued presence and stand out in their true radiance as gifts we could never have earned or achieved.

I think that's what I love about my life. There's no maniacal master plan. It's just unfolding before me.

...she (the artist, the writer) doesn't wait for inspiration, she acts in the anticipation of its apparition.

Rarely if ever do we know the grand intention, yet if we surrender to the creative impulse, our singular piece of the puzzle takes its proper shape.

It does not follow, that because a particular work of art succeeds in charming us, its creator also deserves our admiration.

A thought comes when it will, not when I will.

The creative act is not pure.

Without a plan, we do what’s passive and easy — not what is really fulfilling. Robert Epstein surveyed thirty thousand