Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it, summon it, from even the most tragic of circumstances.

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Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.

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Your life is already artful-waiting, just waiting, for you to make it art.

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In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.

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I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge - even wisdom. Like art.

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All important things are hard.

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Don’t beg anybody for anything, especially love.

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Books ARE a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.

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I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.

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You are your own stories and therefore free to imagine and experience what it means to be human... And although you don't have complete control over the narrative - no author does, I can tell you - you could nevertheless create it.

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