Every single job is a challenge. You are walking into a new set, a new character, creating a world and trying to get comfortable to do your best work.
See, what you're meant to do when you have a mid-life crisis is buy a fast car, aren't you? Well, I've always had fast cars. It's not that. It's the fear that you're past your best. It's the fear that the stuff you've done in the past is your best work.
Some of the things I'm most proud of, it isn't because I think it's my best work; it's because of something that it's taught me.
The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.
Confidence and empowerment are cousins in my opinion. Empowerment comes from within and typically it's stemmed and fostered by self-assurance. To feel empowered is to feel free and that's when people do their best work. You can't fake confidence or empowerment.
A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
I'm fascinated by musicians who don't completely understand their territory; that's when you do your best work.
All I know is that my best work has come out of being committed and happy.
The talent that has to be learned is finding out what someone's passion is and setting them up to realize that. You don't get the best work from people if you're guiding them versus them guiding themselves.
The effort to create a work of art that is true and potentially lasting, that is the very best work of art you can create at that point in your life - a book that may only reach or move a few people but will seem to those people somehow transformative. That's the ideal; that's always the motivation.