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    “Treat your discipline like a blade and the promises you make to yourself like a whetstone. Each time you keep one of those promises, you get to run that stone along the edges of your blade. You don’t sharpen that blade in a single setting. Like all good things, it takes time. It must be slow. It must be meticulous. It must be thoughtful. It must be tender. This is how you develop discipline, by keeping the promises you make to yourself––day after day after day.”

    Cole Schafer

      “The great crime novelist Raymond Chandler set aside four hours each day where he had to be completely alone. During his solitude he gave himself permission not to write if he wasn’t feeling inspired. However, if he chose not to write, he had to sit in his writing chair and do nothing. Eventually, Chandler would become so goddamn bored doing nothing, he’d to write.”

      Cole Schafer

        “Askida Ekmek is an ancient Turkish tradition that translates to ‘bread on the hook’. When purchasing a loaf of bread from a baker, the customer may choose to purchase a second loaf for a stranger in need. The baker will then bag this second loaf and hang it from a hook in the bakery. Later in the day, someone short on money will ask ‘Askida ekmek var mi?’ or ‘Is there bread on the hook?’ and the baker will give them a loaf for free. To get where you are today, others before you have left bread on the hook. Once you are established in your career and secure in your finances, its your responsibility to do the same.”

        Cole Schafer

          “We are made to believe that sensitivity is a crutch, a weakness, a liability—but sensitivity is dangerous. It’s as dangerous as a knife in the dark. It’s as dangerous as a black widow nesting in the mouth of a recently remembered garden glove. It’s as dangerous as a leopard trailing the man with the gun set on killing her. If you are particularly sensitive, do not stifle it. Do not hide it. Do not abandon it. Hone it. Wield it. Learn to control it. Your capacity to feel deeper than those around you will make you a fearsome foe, a devoted friend, a courageous lover, a compassionate human and—if you are in the arts or some neighboring vocation—fantastically rich. If not monetarily, spiritually.”

          Cole Schafer

            “I have an extraordinarily low tolerance for pessimists. You should, too. This world is already difficult enough. We don’t need to be reminded of its difficulty. Instead, we need to be reminded that everything that has come before us was created by men and women who weren’t any more capable than you or me. We need to be reminded of what is possible, and we need to remind others of what is possible, too. May this be your reminder.”

            Cole Schafer

              “Some days I show up and do the best writing of my life. Other days, many days, I show up and do writing that is underwhelmingly average (and reeking of a few typos). The lesson I hope you walk away with in watching me work is not that I am flawless, but that a deeply flawed individual can achieve something that transcends his lackluster abilities by simply showing up, again and again, over the course of a lifetime.”

              Cole Schafer

                “Develop your taste. Take a good, long look at anyone creating meaningful work. You will see that it wasn’t their skill that came first but their taste. With time, they became so inspired by their taste, that they wanted to create something themselves that could live up to it. In other words, they honed their skills to make something worthy of their taste. You shouldn’t be a snob about many things in life. Your taste, however, is an exception. Watch great films. Read gorgeous books. Spin brilliant records. Eat delicious food. Study extraordinary people. Consume. Consume. Consume. Develop your taste. Refine your palate. Your skills will follow.”

                Cole Schafer

                  “In an age where everyone appears to be producing constantly, it’s forgivable to assume you must be producing constantly too. If you are producing content, perhaps you should be. However, I don’t think you want to produce content. I think you want to make art. I think you need to make art. Art is a different animal entirely. It’s creation doesn’t abide by the same rules as content. Content is made for the masses and it is often soulless, plastic and easily replicable. Art, on the other hand, is self-expression. It’s soaked in your own blood. It’s as rich as figs drowning in a bowl of sugar and cream. It’s as unique as the Katana.”

                  Cole Schafer

                    “To me, smoking might be the most attractive activity a woman (or anyone for that matter) can do. Yet, the irony in this attraction is that if I were to fall in love with a woman who smoked, I’d want them to stop the disgusting habit immediately. Perhaps there is a metaphor in there for love. Where people fuck up tragically in love is that they fall in love with someone and then immediately attempt to make them someone else.”

                    Cole Schafer

                      “If you are in pain––be it in life, work or love––reflect on a time you were hurting so deeply and so gutturally. If you retrace your steps and walk back to this broken place, you will surely find a bed of wildflowers growing there. Raid them. Cut them. Bunch them into a bouquet. Place them on your kitchen counter. On the days when your heart is so heavy, you wish you could pluck it out of your chest and wring it out in the kitchen sink––don’t. Instead, gaze upon the flowers on the counter and remind yourself that healing takes time.”

                      Cole Schafer

                        “The Buddhists believe that our presence can be healing; that by simply sharing space with another person and giving them our full, undivided attention, we can ease their suffering. Sometimes I wonder if the reason we don’t all feel so broken and lonely and insecure is because we rarely give each other our full, undivided attention.”

                        Cole Schafer

                          “The reason creativity wilts inside of us like a vase full of snipped wildflowers is the very same reason love fades. Somewhere along the line, we stop noticing. We can never stop noticing. The moment we stop noticing, we might as well be dead. We’re alive and breathing but we feel nothing at all. Creativity and love dies when we feel nothing at all. And so we notice so we we can feel because, in the words of Klinkenborg, noticing means thinking with all your senses.”

                          Cole Schafer

                            “If you take a long, hard look at your romantic relationships that have ended in fire, you will very likely notice they began with a considerable bit of smoke. When we’re young and dumb, we believe that love is like a fairytale. We believe that we can be the one that finally helps her shake her ex. We believe that we can be the one that helps him conquer his Vicodin addiction. We believe that love can begin badly and then somehow miraculously make a comeback in the 4th quarter. But, love doesn’t work this way. The love that is good in the end, starts out good in the beginning; and the love that is bad in end, started out bad in the beginning.”

                            Cole Schafer

                              “What do you do with an idea? You do nothing. You do absolutely nothing, until it’s impossible to do nothing.”

                              Cole Schafer

                                “If you’re creative, you will be overwhelmed with ideas. And, naturally, you will feel the urge to write these ideas down, terrified that you might forget them. While some would advise you to write your ideas down, I would advise against it. I think the only way to truly know for certain that you have an idea worth pursuing, is if the idea is also pursuing you.”

                                Cole Schafer

                                  “When you realize that you have mere moments to make the world a better place before you leave it, everything changes.”

                                  Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 191)

                                    “Would you still love her if you couldn’t post pictures of her? Would that love still exist if you and she were the only two people in the entire world that got to experience what the two of you share? I don’t think so. No, I don’t think you would love her like you say you do. I think the two of you are in love with the show, not the real people playing the actors in it.”

                                    Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 181)

                                      “At times, I wish I were better at moderation. But, to be honest, it’s just not the way I’m wired. I came into this world hungry and I’m going to die hungry and my hunger is going to make me wildly successful and ultimately lead to my demise and I’m okay with that. I don’t want to be full.”

                                      Cole Schafer (January Black), One Minute, Please? (Page 168)