Long

Create your own definition of success. Don't let it be judged or guided by someone else's measurements, by someone else's expectations or limitations.

Failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

True success is measured in how you play the game of life — that you honor those that have come before you by playing the game with great integrity, with honor and class.

The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something, because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough.

When you're screwing up and nobody's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up. Your critics are your ones telling you they still love you and care.

It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the dreams will come to you.

I have discovered that it is just as easy or just as hard to climb a tall mountain as it is to climb a small mountain—so why not go for it!

The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.

I had to take off the teacher mask, which so many of us put on at the beginning; the mask that says: 'Well, I'm the teacher and I know it all. You sit there and I'll tell you.'

Most people are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Delaying happiness along with gratification is quite another thing, because each milestone along your path ought to have its own form of happiness.

Real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing that the time has come to move beyond preparing to doing.