The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

I’m not a natural performer or exhibitionist. When I was younger, I hated the focus, and it made me feel strange.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.

You cannot let where you are today cause you to get stuck. I’m going to be my best right now. That’s what faith is all about.

There’s only one effectively redemptive sacrifice, the sacrifice of self-will to make room for the knowledge of God.

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war.

I like to make people feel happy and superior in their reaction towards my appearance.

My show ‚The Big House‘ was picked up; they flew me to New York. I’m about to step on stage to announce Kevin Hart’s ‚The Big House.‘ And a hand grabs my shoulder, ‚Kevin no, they just decided to cancel it.‘ It’s a serious smack-in-the-face business, and either you can take it, or you can’t.

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

I never fall in love.

We’re all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

I don’t have all the answers.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

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

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation – and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress.

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

When I was married, I definitely went through a lying period.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

Generally, the younger the victim, the greater the grief. Yet even when the elderly or infirm have been afforded merciful relief, their loved ones are rarely ready to let go.

For me, it’s about the way I carry myself and the way I treat other people. My relationship and how I feel about God and what He does for me, is something deeply personal. It’s where I came from, my family, I was brought up in a religious household and that’s very important to me.

Man has two great spiritual needs. One is for forgiveness. The other is for goodness.

For me, there are two types of people: the young and the experienced.

The display of grief makes more demands than grief itself. How few men are sad in their own company.

I think the worst part about a breakup sometimes, if one could choose a worst part, would possibly be if you get out of a relationship, and you don’t recognize yourself because you changed a lot about you.

Grief changes shape, but it never ends.

I kind of love Cole Miller.

If you get knocked down – setbacks in life, like applying for a job if they don’t hire you – keep trying, keep getting up, keep doing it.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

When things are going bad, there’s going to be some good that’s going to come from it.

Things do not change; we change.

There are no rules when it comes to love.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

Character is power.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

Prayer doesn’t just change things – it changes us. If we are diligent in seeking God, slowly and surely we become better people.

I’m not resigned, but I’m realistic too. The statistics in my case are very poor. Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long. And the other wager is, the part of the wager, it’s a certainty you’ll have a terrible time and you may wish you were dying because it’s an awful process.

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

I was ironing my own clothes when I was 11 years old. My mental strength goes back to those days.

The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.

The good times of today, are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Don’t get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

I’m an emotional person.

Take advantage of the years of pioneering efforts. You might find this boring, as the young want to rush head on, as it were.

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Death is the king of this world: ‚Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet.