My lyrics are generated by various peculiar processes. Very random and similar to automatic writing.

God’s Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I’m really not worth being called an artist at all.

I’m terrified of therapy because I don’t want it to mess with my creativity.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of carrion?

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

Steven Spielberg was my childhood hero.

My paintings have gotten to be pretty popular and I’ve taken a little bit more interest in painting the last few years. In fact, my novel that I wrote not too long ago, ‚The Hornet’s Nest,‘ I painted the cover picture for it and I do a good bit of painting now.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

We all sort of do want incentives for creative people to still exist at a certain level. You know, maybe rock stars shouldn’t make as much; who knows? But you want as much creativity to take place in the future as took place in the past.

No art can be noble which is incapable of expressing thought, and no art is capable of expressing thought which does not change.

A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle.

PowerPoint may not be of any use for you in a presentation, but it may liberate you in another way, an artistic way. Who knows.

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.

Helped are those who create anything at all, for they shall relive the thrill of their own conception and realize a partnership in the creation of the Universe that keeps them responsible and cheerful.

Any artist, the work you do, if it’s a painting or if it’s a performance, you hope it translates to a common denominator with the people that they see something in their own life in there. Or they see something in somebody else’s life. That’s what’s fun about sharing art.

I’m convinced that no one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Language ought to be the joint creation of poets and manual workers.

Music is the melody whose text is the world.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

If I’m gonna write songs about my exes, they can write songs about me. That’s how it works.

One element of Madonna’s career that really takes center stage is how many times she’s reinvented herself. It’s easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It’s inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

I know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.

Poetry is the art of substantiating shadows, and of lending existence to nothing.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

All of my writing is God-given.

Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.

I put out one album one week, and I’m already worried about the next one. I feel a lot of emotion throughout the course of a day. But not to the point where you need to be worried about me.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

I have certain guys who I looked up to. Jordan, Kobe, those guys. Passing that on to doing my part to kind of keep that influence of basketball where it should be is kind of why I play the game.

I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‚You’re going to do it my way.‘ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‚You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.‘

Every day, the people I meet inspire me… every day, they make me proud… every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth.

Objects in pictures should so be arranged as by their very position to tell their own story.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

The assumption is that your personal life has to be a mess to create, but how much chaos can you allow in before it takes over?

I always wrote poetry and stuff like that, so putting songs together wasn’t that spectacular.

I don’t know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

I think a poet is anybody who wouldn’t call himself a poet.

Artistic temperament is the disease that afflicts amateurs.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.

I hate the idea of genres.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

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

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.

We live in a culture that relishes tearing others down. It’s ultimately more fulfilling, though, to help people reach their goals. Instead of feeling jealous, remember: If God did it for them, He can do it for you.

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.