I didn’t want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that’s a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I’m proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.

I have tried for much of my life to write as if I was composing my sentences to be read posthumously.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

Say not, ‚I have found the truth,‘ but rather, ‚I have found a truth.‘

Fame can take interesting men and thrust mediocrity upon them.

I don’t think I’m supposed to boss other people around just because I’m a so-called celebrity or star. I hate that when people act that way. No one deserves it. I’ve seen it happen. I don’t call those people out – they know who they are. Some enjoy that reputation.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

If you look at my job, my union card, it says ‚actor.‘ It don’t say nothing about celebrity, movie star, nothing like that, and that’s one thing that keeps me humble.

I’ve been very fortunate.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

The most deeply personal of my works are the non-fiction works, the autobiographical works, because there, I’m talking about myself very directly.

Success and failure are equally disastrous.

Charlotte Bronte was writing about sex. I supposed Jane Austen was, too. Where do you get a hero like Darcy unless you are writing about sex?

If the grandfather of the grandfather of Jesus had known what was hidden within him, he would have stood humble and awe-struck before his soul.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

Mere humans who root through their refrigerators at three o’clock in the morning can only produce writing that matches what they do. And that includes me.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

I believe that my parents did wonderful things for us.

I’ve never had a divorce, but I’ve seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can’t write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I’m able to kind of express it, or their joy.

I’m one of the luckiest people on earth.

I’ve been so blessed to play for the greatest coach at a time when our organization has done incredible things. I’ve played with the best teammates. Playing for Mr. Kraft and what his influence on the team has been.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.

I have owed you this letter for a very long time-but my fingers have avoided the pencil as though it were an old and poisoned tool.

Everything I have, my career, my success, my family, I owe to America.

What one has to do usually can be done.

Money is an unavoidable consequence, but it isn’t the reason I write; if it was, I wouldn’t have written any of the YA books, because advances in that field are small compared to what I’d got now for an ‚adult‘ DW.

I never get too high on my stardom or what I can do.

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

I never expected any sort of success with ‚Mockingbird’… I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did… in fact, they admired it.

When I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it.

I’ve always appreciated a turn of phrase.

I have found out in later years that we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it then.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

If I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.

Each day provides its own gifts.

Basically, I’m one of the greatest producers ever. And I’m also one of the greatest DJs ever. And I’m also one of the best executives ever.

I always have to be writing.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

I notice that my characters go out to dinner and have fun and take these great trips, but I spend so much time on their lives, I don’t have much of a personal life of my own. I have to sort of remember to fill out that little notebook on me.

When I write, it’s like choosing which shoes I’m going to put on. More often than not, my lyrics are personal – but I sometimes have to put myself in other people’s shoes.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

I was in enough to get along with people. I was never socially inarticulate. Not a loner. And that saved my life, saved my sanity. That and the writing. But to this day I distrust anybody who thought school was a good time. Anybody.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

If we don’t succeed we run the risk of failure.

That which is given with pride and ostentation is rather an ambition than a bounty.