There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

At the end of the day, who I really and truly am is a little girl who loved to play the piano.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

Errors are not in the art but in the artificers.

Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society.

Fill the earth with your songs of gratitude.

An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

Philosophy is the highest music.

When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it’s light, and sometimes it gets very dark.

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

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven’t quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.

How I love David Bowie.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus‘ success in the spreadsheet – basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost.

You can’t really imagine music without technology.

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

Whatever I’m feeling, whatever I’m going through, whatever mood I’m in… If I’m feeling like dancing or clubbing, then it will be reflected in the music. If I’m feeling dark and vulnerable, then it will reflect in the music, too.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

I never look at my watch when I’m sketching!

I can dance to just about anything.

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.

The book is not really the container for the book. The book itself is the narrative. It’s the thing that people create.

The concept of commercialism in the fashion and art world is looked down upon. You know, just to think, ‚What amount of creativity does it take to make something that masses of people like?‘ And, ‚How does creativity apply across the board?‘

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

Environment is very important to me. Sometimes I have to perform during the day for festivals, and my music does not work in the daytime. It is nighttime music.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

I’m not suggesting people abandon musical instruments and start playing their cars and apartments, but I do think the reign of music as a commodity made only by professionals might be winding down.

I wish all teenagers can filter through songs instead of turning to drugs and alcohol.

All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.

As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.

I rate Morrissey as one of the best lyricists in Britain. For me, he’s up there with Bryan Ferry.

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

In order for us to have a future that’s exciting and inspiring, it has to be one where we’re a space-bearing civilization.

To do a dull thing with style-now that’s what I call art.

Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

For some reason, I’m really comfortable talking about my personal life in songs.

The thing that’s been really surprising about the evolution of Facebook is – I think then, and I think now – that if we didn’t do this, someone else would have done it.

I’m never going to go to Mars, but I’ve helped inspire, thank goodness, the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars.

I don’t intend to stop making music.

At first, I wasn’t really keen on the idea of me being on stage having to sing in front of people.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best – I mean, when I’m at my best – of the good Southern black preachers. The lyricism of the spirituals and the directness of gospel songs and the mystery of blues are in my music or in my poetry and prose, or I missed everything.

And I wound up in New Orleans for all those years and it was a great place, really a catalyst creatively.

The United States is definitely ahead in culture of innovation. If someone wants to accomplish great things, there is no better place than the U.S.

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

If it’s illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!

I get a more passionate delivery when I just go in the booth and let the music talk.

You can’t say civilization don’t advance… in every war they kill you in a new way.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.

Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves.

Singing aloud leaves you with a sense of levity and contentedness.

Imagination rules the world.