I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

If you look at the movie ‚Belly,‘ I identify with Sincere the most. I am a gangster. I love my lady to death. I’m not in the game for the wrong reasons. I’m not in the game for the glory. I’m in the game to survive so the people that I love could be straight. I’m a highly intelligent individual.

I have discovered that my interest in my dear pupil, Mabel, has ripened into a far deeper feeling than that of mere friendship. In fact, I know that I have learned to love her very sincerely.

Like every parent, when you start your family, your life completely changes. And you completely live for someone else. I find that the most extraordinary thing. Your life is handed over to someone else. From that moment on, they come first in every choice you make. It’s the most wonderful thing.

Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers.

Write in such a way as that you can be readily understood by both the young and the old, by men as well as women, even by children.

I’m very, very serious – I’m serious enough not to take myself too seriously. That means I can be completely wedded to the moment. But when I leave that moment, I want to be completely wedded to the next moment.

Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.

The self is hateful.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

Part of what confuses people in times of upheaval is that you’re getting so many different points of view and directions and so and so, how to do this and do that. And a lot of it is written in a language that honestly most people cannot understand.

I do value the respect I get from my contemporaries, but to have Oasis cover my song, to have Puff Daddy cover a song, to have Goldie come along to my gigs – that’s where my ego is at. To have my fellow musicians like what I do, that’s very cool.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

Sure, I can get a little bit jealous. The good part about jealousy is that it comes from passion. It’s also the dangerous part and it’s an ugly emotion that hurts.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

You know how big love is? Love is big. love can hold anger; love can even hold hatred.

U2 is an original species… there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.

We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love. Be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.

Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.

It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Punk was defined by an attitude rather than a musical style.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

I already am a product.

The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens.

It has been hard for me to find it, but I have found love.

I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

Music is the art of the prophets and the gift of God.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

Many people aren’t rich because they’re liars.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

Greater love hath no man than to attend the Episcopal Church with his wife.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me ‚understand‘ something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

If I held you any closer I would be on the other side of you.

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

When in doubt tell the truth.

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein’s regime is a better and safer place.

Whoever blushes is already guilty; true innocence is ashamed of nothing.

Knowing that the time to sleep has come, the Lord sleeps, and does well in sleeping. Often, when we have been fretting and worrying, we should have glorified God far more had we literally gone to sleep.

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

I remember coming to New York in 1974 to do a play here called ‚Equis.‘ And I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, ‚I’m home.‘ I felt really at peace here.

If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.