I became interested in folk music because I had to make it somehow.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

A good thing to remember is somebody’s got it a lot worse than we do.

Basketball is booming, and it’s not just an Under Armour standpoint: it’s about the game itself. Kids going out and playing and being inspired by what we do on the court.

A good song never gets old.

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

All I have to say is basically if performing, singing, acting, and dancing is what you want to do, then you just have to do it – no matter where it is.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

However, there’s no theme or concept behind Heathen, just a number of songs but somehow there is a thread that runs through it that is quite as strong as any of my thematic type albums.

I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

Perhaps when music has been shouting for so long, a quieter voice seems attractive.

People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that’s not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Siren voices tell me, ‚You don’t have to keep going on.‘ And then you think, ‚I’m a writer. What do I do? Sit there watching my wife clean up?‘ I don’t know. I like being a writer.

I don’t think a song should be put in a category.

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

By the mid-’60s, recorded music was much more like painting than it was like traditional music. When you went into the studio, you could put a sound down, then you could squeeze it around, spread it all around the canvas.

U2 is sort of song writing by accident really. We don’t really know what we’re doing and when we do, it doesn’t seem to help.

You need to think outside the box. You need to think differently if you want to sustain what, for me, is my peak performance: the very best that I can achieve as an athlete every day.

The most genius thing about the way I create is to create with other geniuses.

I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

Television sounded really different than the Ramones sounded really different than us sounded really different than Blondie sounded really different than the Sex Pistols.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

Kitty Wells was the first and only Queen of Country Music, no matter what they call the rest of us. She was a great inspiration to me as well as every other female singer in the country music business. In addition to being a wonderful asset to country music, she was a wonderful woman.

You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

When I’m really interested in something, I get superfocused on that. And I can spend hours upon hours not getting tired of reading about it and still be interested to learn more about it.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

What is past is prologue.

It’s a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

You have to dream before your dreams can come true.

Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Music is a really great creative tool for me, for different roles.

You know, there are artists who are 35 and up that still make rap and that still works for them. I don’t know if I want to be that guy.

So there’s nothing more provocative than taking a genre that everybody who’s cool hates – and then making it cool.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

I’m fascinated by musicians who don’t completely understand their territory; that’s when you do your best work.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

I have done one thing that I think is a contribution: I helped Buddhist science and modern science combine. No other Buddhist has done that. Other lamas, I don’t think they ever pay attention to modern science. Since my childhood, I have a keen interest.

There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn’t bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

I’ve tried different things through the years to get some play on mainstream. I’ll try to tailor-make it.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

Until I began to learn to draw, I was never much interested in looking at art.

Music, even with these dial-up connections you have to the Internet, is very practical to download.

An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliche for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.

Silence is more eloquent than words.