But neither money nor machines can create. They shuttle tokens of energy, but they do not transform. A civilization based on them puts people out of touch with their creative powers.

All that we make and do is shaped by the communities and traditions that contain us, not to mention by money, power, politics, and luck. And even should the artist or scientist think she has extracted herself from the world to stand alone in the studio, a tremendous array of faculties and mind-states may well attend her creativity.

An essential portion of any artist’s labor is not creation so much as invocation. Part of the work cannot be made, it must be received and we cannot have this gift except, perhaps, by supplication, by courting, by creating within ourselves that ‘begging bowl’ to which the gift is drawn.

Art does not organize parties, nor is it the servant or colleague of power. Rather, the work of art becomes a political force simply through the faithful representation of the spirit. It is a political act to create an image of the self or of the collective.

Better to operate with detachment, then better to have a way but infuse it with a little humor best, to have no way at all but to have instead the wit constantly to make one's way anew from the materials at hand.

True citizens are not the audience of their government, nor its consumers they are its makers.

Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.

An essential portion of any artist's labor is not creation so much as invocation

Uncovering secrets is apocalyptic in the simple sense (the Greek root means ‘an uncovering’). In this case, it lifts the shame covers. It allows articulation to enter where silence once ruled.

We are only alive to the degree that we can let ourselves be moved.

Science may not be as intimate as the medical profession nonetheless, it certainly is a community in which ideas are often shared as contributions, not as proprietary things.

We forgive when we give up attachment to our wounds.

A gift that cannot be given away ceases to be a gift. The spirit of a gift is kept alive by its constant donation.

Unlike the sale of a commodity, the giving of a gift tends to establish a relationship between the parties involved. When gifts circulate within a group, their commerce leaves a series of interconnected relationships in its wake, and a kind of decentralized cohesiveness emerges.

To be a great teacher, you can't simply be looking at how to earn your income. And with a priest or spiritual leader - there's another relationship that makes those lives what they are. And in each of these cases you'll find elements of gift exchange thriving, and you'll also find a tension around it.