The little planet we occupy has orbited a minor star on the fringes of a rather average galaxy in a universe of unimaginable vastness for over 4.5 billion years, yet our particular species of primate arrived on the scene very recently indeed.  It is humbling to realize that, when we liken the age of the earth to the life-span of an average person, mankind has existed for less than the time it takes to say 'Homo sapiens'.

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings.

Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.

This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

You are right in demanding that an artist approach his work consciously, but you are confusing two concepts: the solution of a problem and the correct formulation of a problem. Only the second is required of the artist.

The truth is that even big collections of ordinary books distort space, as can readily be proved by anyone who has been around a really old-fashioned secondhand bookshop, one of those that look as though they were designed by M. Escher on a bad day and has more staircases than storeys and those rows of shelves which end in little doors that are surely too small for a full- sized human to enter. The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.

Nigel gave the lamp a cautious buff and small smoking red letters appeared in the air. "Hi," Nigel read aloud, "Do not put down the lamp because your custom is important to us. Please leave a wish after the tone and, very shortly, it will be our command. In the meantime, have a nice eternity."

The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp.

I meant, said Ipslore bitterly, what is there in this world that truly makes living worth while? Death thought about it Cats, he said eventually, Cats are Nice.

'It's happened at last,' he moaned.  'I'm going out of my mind.'
Good idea said the voice.  It's getting crowded in here