Animals come from nature. They were not designed. All my inspiration comes from nature, whether it's an animal or the layout of bark or of a leaf. Sometimes my patterns are very bold, and you can barely see where they come from, but all the textures and all the prints come out of nature.
Sometimes you have to understand that you push ahead, there's going to be a lot of flak, there's going to be a lot of dogs barking, but the wagon train moves ahead.
Sometimes the very presence of God is barred by our presuppositions and our intense and constant desire for triumph.
As one looks across the barren stretches of the pack, it is sometimes difficult to realise what teeming life exists immediately beneath its surface.
I definitely don't like to eat a lot before I play. I don't like to play on a full stomach. Sometimes, if I'm feeling hungry before a game, I'll eat one of those protein bars, but that's it.
My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that's where a lot of preachers' kids get off base sometimes. Because they don't see the same things at both places.
I know that baseball players have certain rituals or habits that they develop, because sometimes it becomes somewhat superstitious if they get on a streak and want to do the same thing over and over again.
I liked the military life. They teach you self-sufficiency early on. I always say that I learned most of what I know about leadership in the Marine Corps. Certain basic principles stay with you - sometimes consciously, mostly unconsciously.
I've been in a band, so I understand the politics. Sometimes the bass player doesn't like what the guitar player is doing, and you have to sort of even that out.
I do basically what a conductor does with a baton, except I also play along with the orchestra. So I have to juggle the roles of playing the concertmaster; sometimes I drop the violin and wave my arms.
People only see what they want to see and sometimes you can't do anything about that, so you just pick up the baton and you just run with it.
When I speak to a victim or their family, people who were left bruised and battered by someone, and can give them some small relief, I know I'm winning in some small way, and I'm part of a process that sometimes works.
Artistic temperament sometimes seems a battleground, a dark angel of destruction and a bright angel of creativity wrestling.
Sometimes you've got to tip your cap when they're painting stuff on the corner. But you can't give up, got to keep battling and make some adjustments.
When you're writing, you're conjuring. It's a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you're inviting into the room.
Obviously, you don't have to be religious to be moral, and beastly people are sometimes religious.
Twittering and blogging and all that is fine, but there is no idea of how to phrase something beautifully; how to use language to create an emotion. It's just passing information and sometimes very superficial information.
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
You don't have to be a brain surgeon to be a valuable person. You become valuable because of the knowledge that you have. And that doesn't mean you won't fail sometimes. The important thing is to keep trying.
Sometimes I wish my first word was 'quote,' so that on my death bed, my last words could be 'end quote.'
