“The important thing is to be nothing.”

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

im Gespräch mit Hans Küng über den Weltethos, 2007, YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S4KhE6nzzQ#t=5m8s

Source: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Chapter 14 (p. 207)

Life and Habit http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/lfhb10h.htm, ch. 5 (1877) <br class="br">Context: &quot;Words, words, words,&quot; he writes, &quot;are the stumbling-blocks in the way of truth. Until you think of things as they are, and not of the words that misrepresent them, you cannot think rightly. Words produce the appearance of hard and fast lines where there are none. Words divide; thus we call this a man, that an ape, that a monkey, while they are all only differentiations of the same thing. To think of a thing they must be got rid of: they are the clothes that thoughts wear—only the clothes. I say this over and over again, for there is nothing of more importance. Other men&#x27;s words will stop you at the beginning of an investigation. A man may play with words all his life, arranging them and rearranging them like dominoes. If I could think to you without words you would understand me better.&quot;

Section 3.9
Source: The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)

It is widely believed that George III wrote this in his diary on July 4, 1776, the day the American Revolution began. In fact, this was made up by the scriptwriters of the series The X Files, as George III did not write a diary.
Misattributed

Keynote speech at Christian Management Association conference in Denver, Colorado (March 2006)