I do some kind of work, whether writing or painting or recording, on a daily basis. And it’s so essential that when I’m involved in the actual process, my so-called ‚real life‘ becomes almost incidental, which becomes worrying.

I really, truly believe that writing comes out of the body; of course, the mind is working as well, but it’s a double thing and that doubleness is united. I mean, you can’t separate persona from psyche; you just can’t do it.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

I believe you have to be willing to be misunderstood if you’re going to innovate.

If I could have worked from the time I was born until I was 18 and never had to work again, I would have done it.

I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

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.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for love of it.

In my studio, it is unkempt and unattractive. Once I’m in my work, I don’t notice where I am.

O, had I but followed the arts!

When I write, I can shake off all my cares.

The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.

I do my job like I breathe.

The best work is not what is most difficult for you; it is what you do best.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

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.

I wish myself to be a prop, if anything, for my songs. I want to be the vehicle for my songs. I would like to colour the material with as much visual expression as is necessary for that song.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

I remember very little about writing the first series of ‚Hitchhiker’s.‘ It’s almost as if someone else wrote it.

You can stroke people with words.

I write all my sermons.

My goal is to entertain myself and others.

I became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress. It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn’t. I actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and humanitarian issues.

You do projects with the hope they will be big and hope they will go beyond what you imagine.

I always thought about working in England because of the kind of football, the intensity of football. Liverpool was first choice.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which, before their union, were not perceived to have any relation.

That is how you get to be a writer, incidentally: you feel somehow marginal, somehow slightly off-balance all the time.

If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.

Like any creative human being, I would like a bit more control so that it would be a little easier for me when the director says, ‚One tear, right now,‘ that one tear would pop out.

I think it’s fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we’ve ever created. They’re tools of communication, they’re tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.

Proud 2 Pay – that’s something that distinguishes me, that’s something that defines me, and we’re going to keep that going.

It’s so tedious writing cookbooks or writing the recipes because I’ve never been much of a measurer. But to write a book, you have to measure everything.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

The earliest paintings I loved were always the most non-referential paintings you can imagine, by painters such as Mondrian. I was thrilled by them because they didn’t refer to anything else. They stood alone, and they were just charged magic objects that did not get their strength from being connected to anything else.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

I don’t do Shakespeare. I don’t talk in that kind of broken English.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.

The soul never thinks without a picture.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures.

Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.

Pound’s crazy. All poets are. They have to be. You don’t put a poet like Pound in the loony bin.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.

I love movement. I love moshing.

As the poet said, ‚Only God can make a tree,‘ probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

I cook, I create, I’m incredibly excited by what I do, I’ve still got a lot to achieve.

People think because I’ve got some success, I’ve made it, but in my eyes it’s like, ‚How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?‘ Not that I’m trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.

I cannot with any real integrity perform songs I’ve done for 25 years. I don’t need the money. What I need is to feel that I am not letting myself down as an artist and that I still have something to contribute.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

So many writers don’t like to write… I like to write, and sometimes I’m afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don’t want to leave it. And as a result, I’ll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.

Whatever is on the page is what I’m married to. I’m very prepared. I’m a thespian. I don’t like to improv. I don’t like to go off course ‚cause I think that’s where stuff happens. When you stick to the material ‚cause it’s written so well, that’s where the magic happens.

Dancers are always striving for perfection. A great dancer never achieves it: you always want to do another turn, a higher jump,a more difficult acrobatic jump.

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.