#76: Rick Rubin, The Seclusive Zen Master

Your best work as an artist comes from emotion and the heart, not the head. The head only comes in after to look at what the heart has presented.

The best art divides the audience

At the end of the fourth or fifth or sixth round of being in an ice tub, there is nothing in the world that bothers you

Over 14 months I lost a hundred and thirty-five pounds

To make great art, submerge yourself in great art

Someone who's successful enjoys their life, is great at what they do, is curious, and continually pushing forward and wanting to be better than they were yesterday without beating themselves up about it

We can train ourselves to do absolutely anything, it's really just getting the right information

As an artist, compete only with yourself

If you can make a piece of music that can take your breath away as much as a beautiful sunset, you've done well

Chipping away, one step at a time, you can you can really get through anything

Calories DO matter in the weight loss process

Let music be discovered, not manufactured

If you pay attention to the calories you consume for let's say a year, you really have a better sense of where the calories are hidden in food

Don't beat yourself up - it's not good for you or your work

One thing that helped Rick lose weight - getting 20 minutes of sun as soon as he woke up

There's so many things that get in the way of the artistic process