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Those who knew Mario and Marisa Merz understood that if you invited one artist, you got both. So they installed themselves for several weeks in San Gimignano, turning up together to eat lunch and sit under the trees. I sat with them often, observing Mario at close quarters. I dearly wanted to film him, but was advised against it. Marisa is totally camera phobic; Mario might not have liked it either, and he could famously be quite monstrous. But Mario was more knowing. He had already remarked that he had heard I made “beautiful films”, and I think he knew what he wanted.

So when eventually I asked, “Mario, can I film you?” he replied, “Yes, but no speaking,” and immediately sat himself in a chair under a tree, cupping a huge pine cone in his lap.

Again and again I therefore admonish my students in Europe and America: Don’t aim at success — the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run — in the long-run, I say! — success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.

Viktor Frankl

Cantare sapeva, suonare anche, perché non tentare di riuscire un artista, come quei terroni che gli stavano tra i piedi?

Cesare Pavese

In Tibet, one famous yogi had lived for years practicing ardently in a mountain hut, supported by the villagers below. Then, one festival day, he heard that all his supporters were going to visit him. The yogi carefully swept his hut, polished the offerings bowls on the altar, made a special offering and cleaned his robes. Then, he sat back and waited but an unease came over him. Who was he trying to be? Finally, he got up, scooped up several handfuls of dirt and threw them back onto the altar. Those handfuls of dirt were said to be his highest spiritual offering.

Jack Kornfield