The Starry-Eyed Dreamer
You don’t find Shangri-La. You create it.
In me, Dionysus reigns and Apollo serves.
The darker the universe, the brighter the stars.
From outer space, the earth appears to be one.
Ray O’. — The only drug I mainline is sunshine.
If you’re a star, you might as well sell some light.
I may miss the point, but I always catch the wave.
To become unstuck, enjoy wherever you’re stuck.
Figuratively speaking, I try to fly above the clouds.
Change, evolve, grow. It’s the only hope you’ve got.
If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else ever will.
With perseverance, you can get just about anywhere.
I think more of perfect as a verb than as an adjective.
It’s true. You cannot be reborn without the labor pains.
Discover yourself and then share it with everyone else.
Mantra. — Stop waiting for tomorrow. Start living today.
Part of being happy consists of learning how to be sad.
As long as you have a dream, you’ll never be bankrupt.
Don’t let the past prohibit your future. Rewrite the script.
Never assume defeat even when everything seems lost.
I haven’t heard of many cases where persistence failed.
I perform better under pressure than most deep-sea fish.
Why stress? Life will take care of you one way or another.
Don’t take a helicopter to the top of the mountain. Hike it!
Where the weak-willed give up, the strong-willed push on.
It’s all right to hit rock bottom — just don’t set up shop there.
My face might not have wrinkles, but my soul certainly does.
To learn and grow, we must continually confront our ignorance.
Discipline is the backbone of excellence and passion the flesh.
The illusion is that it’s coming. The truth is that it’s already here.
I want to experience everything once and the good things twice.
If we don’t practice our ideals, they won’t ever become a reality.
Keep going. — One thing all losers share in common is quitting.
Heroes are simply those who are able to rise above themselves.
When we share, we begin to realize the abundance of the planet.
There is no such thing as bad music — only unappreciative ears.
You can accomplish a lot by doing a little each day. It all adds up.
I stopped worrying when I realized it was more profitable to hope.
I would describe my attachment to this world as primarily ethereal.
The first act of originality is overcoming the fear of being different.
The world will keep opening up to you if you keep opening up to it.
Our ability to be a good friend is limited primarily by our selfishness.
The secret to winning is getting everyone on your side. Cultivate allies.
You cannot expect very much out of life if you give it little back in return.
Moonlighting. — To make daydreaming pay, you have to work nights too.
Not being able to see your own riches is one of the worse forms of poverty.
If power is the most potent offense, then love is the most sensible defense.
We’re all struggling to survive, but that’s no excuse for foregoing kindness.
The eternal optimist. — I’m only a million dollars short of being a millionaire.
Everyone wants to hop on my train because it’s heading straight for Utopia.
You must gamble to attain greatness. Life is the highest-stake game there is.
Brave the summit before your powers decline. Boldness takes one to the top.
It’s the ups and downs that make the ride interesting. A flat line equals death.
For my hero, Joseph Campbell. — I’m following my bliss straight to oblivion.
A full-time job. — Avoid the distractions. Concentrate on your higher purpose.
Happiness isn’t any particular circumstance. It’s a way of looking at the world.
You can take your gloom and doom and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine.
I’m so damn positive that I even look at the walls as bridges to understanding.
I tend to like most people because I’ve never been that good at discriminating.
Your stock rises when you help others raise their own estimation of themselves.
There’s very little time between ripe and rotten. Don’t let your fruits go to waste.
Find the poetry in your heart and share it as widely and generously as you can.
It seems to me that man has two basic choices: face life heroically or live in fear.
As far as I know, conventional wisdom has never won any awards for innovation.
Nocturnal imagery. — I’m the silver glimmer on the night sea, longing for eternity.
If you don’t like the roles society is offering you, become your own casting director.
To live and die as an artist. I can think of no greater curse and no greater blessing.
’Tis in the small, quiet, and unexpected moments that joy works its greatest magic.
I like to alter my senses occasionally, but not so often that I don’t notice the alteration.
I’d rather live liberally for 40 years than conservatively for 80, said the twenty-year-old.
When I look at the chalice as half-full instead of half-empty, I get much more inebriated.
I know there are quite a few critics out there, but being alive is still the best thing going.
You won’t hear this on Wall Street, but your biggest investment should be in the moment.
Trying is a trait of amateurs. Do it or don’t. Anything in-between will be mediocre at best.
If I were to pick one dominant theme for my life, it would be the quest for understanding.
Self-realization. — You’ll know when you’ve found yourself because it’ll fit without forcing it.
The more time you spend complaining, the less time you’ll have to remedy your complaints.
When you introduce some new possibilities into your life, the old limitations soon exit the scene.
An alliteration example for the kool kids in the audience. — Scribbling from a San Francisco Studio
Simple math. — If you learn just one new thing a day, at the end of a leap year, you’ll be 366 times smarter.
I’m sure my smile annoys some people, but their censor is not strong enough to keep me from publishing it.
Every odd in the world was against me, but self-determination was able to turn this dark horse into a winner.
If you’re not seeing a little beauty in each day, you need to go out and buy yourself some rose-colored glasses.
Regularly, I have to remind myself to put away the telescope so I can enjoy what lies within view of the naked eye.
Joy is less like some elusive prey that we doggedly chase and more like an unknown island that we luckily discover.
I like lying on the beach as much as the next guy. However, I’m happiest when I’m flying headlong towards the horizon.
I hear the mighty heckles in the background. Yet, they don’t slow me down a bit. I just keep stepping and moving forward.
Excuses are the excrement of failure. The world doesn’t need any more crap. Produce reasons for why instead of why not.
I never complain about the gray skies above my head, because I realize they’re responsible for the green grass beneath my feet.
Moon shot. — There are the many that spend their days making the possible impossible. Then there are the few that give their lives to turning the impossible into the possible.
You may have an overabundance of credentials, education, skill, and talent. But I tell you what, “If you ain’t got heart, you ain’t got nothing.”
Folks who believe their worldview is 20/20 are colorblind. They perceive everything in terms of black and white and miss out on all the splendid glory of the color spectrum.
When we categorize an experience, we limit it. Even washing dishes can be sublime if we don’t prematurely throw it into the mundane class.
I don’t hate business per se, but I don’t think it should constitute the whole of life. The soft side of being is worthy of attention as well.
Profit is the cream the enterprising man skims off the top. All you have to do is find some way of getting your hands on the milk first.
Rise above your small-minded neighbor’s derision and realize your grand vision. The accomplishment grows in proportion to the sheer immensity and supposed impossibility of your dream.
The smallest slights are enough to kindle a desire for fame and glory. However, it’s not a wise practice to build your self-confidence on the opinions of others. Following this course, you become their slave rather than your own master.
There are those who find it necessary to announce their arrival with noise and boisterousness. Personally, I think it’s better to be noticed without saying a word. A quiet, illuminating presence is a star quality. You shouldn’t have to scream to turn heads.
Shock jock. — If you need to shock people in order to get their attention, then you’re probably not worthy of it.
Go high. — If something is beneath you, do not stoop to its level. Instead, raise it up so it can see what grows at higher altitudes.
Follow your own sense of life. Become one with your own inner necessity. Do not ignore what is unique, inimitable, and irreproducible within your own being. Develop your own trademark. Do not wear another man’s label.
On a timeless and dateless eve, I stood alone on one of the great hills of San Francisco and felt the sweep of history move through me. I can attest. The old wind of Manifest Destiny is still blowing west.
Through some strange process of metamorphosis, what begins as pain and failure on one side of the medium of expression somehow comes out the other end transformed into beauty and triumph.
An obsolete idea. — In a hundred years from now, if a kid from the streets was to wander into a used bookstore, and find me all tattered and torn in the obscurity of the back shelves, and somehow if I was able to improve the quality of his existence, or to make him feel less alone, or just to make him laugh, that in itself would be success for me.
My ode to art and its practitioners. — To toil away without recognition or reward; to believe in something that no else sees or feels; to face financial ruin and economic deprivation; to endure many a lonely day and night; to be criticized by loved ones and strangers; to have nothing but one’s dream and one’s art. To sacrifice everything that the world values to satisfy an indescribable and undeniable need to create and form. To put quite simply: to be who you are at all costs.
Until you can cha-cha with chaos and make it look beautiful, you better keep practicing your moves and working on your steps.
Stanza 1. — He used to dream of big things to come, lying in the green field, under the morning sun.
Stanza 2. — He surveyed life from his dandelion bed, marveling at Mother Nature’s play, which danced in his head.
Stanza 3. — He climbed a tall tree to escape the shadows, daring to touch the sky with his tiny hands, and kiss the day star so shiny and hallowed.
Clarity
I can overcome my fears.
I can fly high
I can dance with the birds
And see myself clearly
And free myself
From myself
And accept what is
And quit fighting
That which will be
Because all happens in time
There are no riddles
At the end
Just eternal truths
Lying in our hands.