When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

Why should poetry have to make sense?

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

I think when people make a record with a goal in mind – like taking it to the next level or making them seem more mature – that gets in the way of writing great songs.

Ideas have a short shelf life. You must act on them before the expiration date.

I’ve had mixtapes that have been better than albums I’ve heard from other artists. I take my time; I put my heart into it.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

Entrepreneurs are natural problem-solvers, which means that we always have ideas for new businesses popping into our heads. Having a lot of options is great, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on one when you are keen to move onto the next.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

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.

All of my writing is God-given.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

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

The thing about the 600 words, I mean some day, you can do a very, very, very hard day’s work and not write a word, just revising, or you would scribble a few words.

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

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

Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

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

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

I never thought, in my lifetime, that you’d be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today.

Cowardice… is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

People want to know why I do this, why I write such gross stuff. I like to tell them I have the heart of a small boy… and I keep it in a jar on my desk.

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.

Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.

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

I’m happy to be a writer – of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn’t a recluse, hermit or mute uses words. I know of no other art form that we always use.

Write injuries in dust, benefits in marble.

I can no longer type, so I use TalkingPoint and Dragon Dictate. It’s a speech-to-text program, and there’s an add-on for talking which some guys came up with.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

Self-driving cars are the natural extension of active safety and obviously something we should do.

Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence.

If you can’t tolerate critics, don’t do anything new or interesting.

O wise man! Give your wealth only to the worthy and never to others. The water of the sea received by the clouds is always sweet.

Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.

I really do encourage other manufacturers to bring electric cars to market. It’s a good thing, and they need to bring it to market and keep iterating and improving and make better and better electric cars, and that’s what going to result in humanity achieving a sustainable transport future. I wish it was growing faster than it is.

I have so many designs and video ideas and lyrics in my head, so I always try to be productive.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

Men of lofty genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least, for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form.

Science fiction, to me, has not only things that wouldn’t happen, but other planets.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

I am not influenced by the techniques or fashions of any other motion picture company.

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.

Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.

I know the blessing of having a dad who played 16 years in the league. That experience, and seeing him as an example, let me know that it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

You need a certain amount of nerve to be a writer.