"We talking about practice"

Practice. We talking about practice. Allen Iverson wasn't big on practice. More of a game day guy.

But perfect comes from practice, right?

You want to be a poet? Write 75 lines every day. That was Ezra Pound to W.S. Merwin. Merwin followed his advice. Seems to have worked out for him.

With something like running, I frequently get more out of training runs than from the race they are preparing for.

There's no glamour in practice. That's alright, I got no glamour anyway.

An artist friend once said, that's the thing about being a professional artist. There are days when I feel like drawing. There are days when I don't. I settle in and draw either way. Because that's what I do. That's my choice.

Preparation is implied. It's a condition. We don't care about it watching TV or walking through a gallery, but it better be reflected in the final product. The outcome.

Jerry Rice and Walter Payton never stopped practicing. Preparing. Payton ran up hills in his Kangaroos. They were always ready.

I was never a boyscout. My time in the woods and marshes was unstructured. It was my own. We made trails and forts and bridges of our own design. It was just what we did.

I'm lazy. But I try to show up. To be present.

The will to succeed is nothing without the will to prepare. To practice. That's the word on the street. And in the locker room. It's what makes the interview.

Allen Iverson dissed practice once he had already arrived. But you know there was a nine-year-old AI, an 11, a 13-year old Iverson that was out by himself, ball, rim, streetlight. Putting in his time.

Showing up.