What makes you an artist?

So funny: all the books I didn't finish in college, all the writing, essays and papers I flaked on in college, all the books I half read are all the things that I do now in my work as an actor, writer, producer & coach.  

Because being an artist is an education...that's why it's so annoying to me when folks think they don't have to work hard or since they flunked out of school, they should become an artist to express themselves. 

That's the fallacy: art's job is to create empathy.  The artist's job is to focus on the audience and remind them of their humanity.  You can't do that unless you have a deep, wise understanding of the human condition and that requires that you read, see and learn as much about the world as possible...to have as wide an understanding of the world as possible, an understanding that is as varied as the stories of human beings around the world since the beginning of time...

Your limited experiences and your feelings don't make you an artist.

Your ability to understand the larger world and remind us of the beauty, frailty, wisdom and vulnerability of the human condition does.​