Eighth Day of Summer

"As an artist, I must take time to see. It is not healthy for me as an artist to be turned to an inner movie, always watching the "what if, if only I had's". "What if" and "if only" are poison to the artist. They throw us into the past. They dull our lens on the passing world. And it is in the passing world that inspiration lies in wait for us. If I live in the "then" instead of the "now", the art dries up"

"The doing of something productive regardless of the outcome is an act of faith. Faith means going forward by whatever means we can"

"All creative acts are acts of initiative. Art is born, but not without labor on our part. We must be willing to reach inside and draw forth what we find there."

"Wherever you are is the entry point"

"If we give something our attention, we rest our creativity on it..if we put our attention on the wrong things, they steal our energy and leave us impotent while pulling unsavory experiences into our lives"

"Finally, one just has to shut up, sit down, and write"

"Shame impacts creativity. It makes it difficult to create. Shame shuts us down, shuts us out, shuts us off"

"Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts"

Today as I baked myself to medium well in the pool, I read for about 5 hours. Everything I'm reading right now has to do with theater, creativity, art, being an artist, 9/11, or sports. This past semester in Avant Garde class we discussed how Genet went to prison and did all of writing and reading in their. Now that's what I call nothing to do but commit to your art. If I was in prison, between anal gang rapes, I'd read every single book ever written. I'd write as much as possible. When I thought about it today, I have that wish, I can do all those things, except getting the anal gang rape, but my roommate is a sweetheart and if I just ask.....

Tomorrow I have nothing to do. Nothing. I'm going to go to the gym and then for...oh let's say..... 10 hours I'm going to try to memorize a monologue, write a few pages to my 9/11 show, read a play, and start writing a script of an idea that came to me today. If I should get a lot of that accomplished, anal rapes for everyone!!!!

I need to stay out of the sun. I'm getting to be like Wesley Snipes black. I was Obama black yesterday, and slowly moving past Bill Cosby black now.

My favorite quote above is "Sit down, shut up and write". I think that says it all. Stop the bullshit and do something. We can talk ourselves out of anything and I'm the all time con artist of procrastination.