I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician.

Scripture is filled with examples of men and women whom God used late in life, often with great impact – men and women who refused to use old age as an excuse to ignore what God wanted them to do.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

Nothing can come of nothing.

Whenever I write a novel, music just sort of naturally slips in (much like cats do, I suppose).

It’d be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren’t kids who look up to me, but my responsibility is not to them. I’m not a baby sitter.

There wasn’t much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

To create something you must be something.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.

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

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

The book that convinced me I wanted to be a writer was ‚Crime and Punishment‘. I put the thing down after reading it in a fever over two or three days… I said, ‚If this is what a book can be, then that is what I want to do.‘

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

There was a moment when Prince did rock & roll with a sponge-y seductive sound. I think that’s what was in our head for ‚Get On Your Boots.‘ But actually, the song is much more punk rock.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Muhammad Ali is a legend, a hero of mine.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

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.

As a kid, we would drive up and down 77 North – that’s our highway – there would be office buildings on the side of the highway and I’d be like, that’s what my house is going to look like when I get older. I’m going to start making my house look like this.

I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night – and I’d dream about it being me.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

I remember being in Japan when Destiny’s Child put out ‚Independent Women,‘ and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.

Work aside, we come to New York for the possibility of interaction and inspiration.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

When one has a great deal to put into it a day has a hundred pockets.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

I think a role model is a mentor – someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

I subscribe to the myth that an artist’s creativity comes from torment. Once that’s fixed, what do you draw on?

When ideas fail, words come in very handy.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

In cricket, my superhero is Sachin Tendulkar. He has always been my hero and will continue to remain so. Apart from him and outside cricket, my mother has remained my inspiration. Whatever difficult time I had faced, she was always there for me. She has given me all the strength. She maintained her composure and supported me in tough times.

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

Everywhere I go I find that people… both leaders and individuals… are asking one basic question, ‚Is there any hope for the future?‘ My answer is the same, ‚Yes, through Jesus Christ.‘

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Knowledge is a polite word for dead but not buried imagination.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

Looking back on the production of ‚Nevermind,‘ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.

One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.

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.‘

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

No sanction can stand against ignited minds.

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

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

I dropped out of high school and I couldn’t go to college ‚cause I wasn’t smart enough, so I’d resigned myself to loading trucks and playing punk rock on the weekends.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

I was impressed with what someone like Karl Lagerfeld built and did and the house that he made, but there was never really a female figure I wanted to emulate.