Q: What's more important: respect or money? Why?
A: Money and respect ultimately do not take one too far. They aren’t accurate measures of a person’s worth. If Van Gogh had based his sense of worth as a human being or as an artist on how others felt or how much money he made, he might have cut off an ear or something. 

If I were to choose between the two words, respect and money, I would choose respect, but it would have to be respect from those for whom I have respect. If people are the measure of the art, and the measure of people, as opposed to those who walk through the art museum and never see any of the pictures, respect will mean something. 

No matter who might respect me, if I do not respect myself I cannot receive respect from others. I will look at them with contempt. 

Q: What's one thing you would absolutely tell your daughter (future or present)?
A: I want my daughters to know I love them and how beautiful and valuable they are, although I realize they may never fully appreciate anything I say until years after I am gone. I hope they are able to hold to some true message I leave them. I believe they will know I cared eternally for them, that they meant more than anything, and whatever they do creatively, or in life, will meet my approval, from this side of the veil or the other. However immature or amateur their creativity might be, I want them to know how beautiful it is to me and how beautiful they are. 

When I was a kid and saw Kor, Robbins, and Rearick, I wanted to be in the circle of their beauty but was too young to know I was already. As my daughters seem to have inherited some of the creative drive and torment of which I have been blessed and cursed, and both being extremely sensitive, impacted deeply by the world, I hope they learn what people say or don’t say is not the end of the world. I hope they listen to other energies than simply people, such as a color of sky, a slant of light, a sweep of stars. Perhaps they will remember me when a whiff of railroad smoke comes to them from the nearby freight line. I hope they can find my spirit in or near them and let themselves be carried away to my love at any time and always. 

We climbers should be more generous spirited toward each other and see each other as family, instead of acquaintances or rivals. We all are someone’s sons and daughters trying to learn. With so much grandeur to which we are exposed as climbers, we should better love and forgive each other and appreciate everyone who is trying to give any part of his or her heart to the world. I want my daughters to see the beauty and the art but also the beauty in people.