All I can do is try to create my own brand and have people appreciate me for that.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

Those outside the church expect followers of Christ to live differently, yet today many in church are chasing after the world – not to win them, but to be like them.

I don’t know that you can put a label on growth. I’m just me.

I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual.

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

Be content to seem what you really are.

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

I think there is a little magic in the fact that I’m so totally real but look so artificial at the same time.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

I feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.

I go through a lot of depression, and I know other people do, too, but I have an outlet that so many people don’t. If you have that inside of you and can’t get it out, what do you do?

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

I’m glad a genre writer has got a knighthood, but stunned that it was me.

Glam really did plant seeds for a new identity. I think a lot of kids needed that – that sense of reinvention. Kids learned that however crazy you may think it is, there is a place for what you want to do and who you want to be.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

Fear is present when we forget that we are a part of God’s divine design. Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

My goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.

My belief is that we were put into this world of wonders and beauty with a special ability to appreciate them, in some cases to have the fun of taking a hand in developing them, and also in being able to help other people instead of overreaching them and, through it all, to enjoy life – that is, to be happy.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.

We can be thankful to a friend for a few acres, or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation.

I don’t think of myself as an artist. I’m just a guy who can write.

I just don’t feel like I have to explain myself.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

People in Ethiopia, the Sudan, etc., don’t know Audrey Hepburn, but they recognize the name UNICEF. When they see UNICEF, their faces light up, because they know that something is happening. In the Sudan, for example, they call a water pump ‚UNICEF.‘

People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.

The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don’t have.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

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

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.

Like Frank Sinatra, I’m doing it my way.

I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way – artistically.

My writing is jagged and harsh, I want it to remain that way; I don’t want it smoothed out.

Delhi means everything to me. This city has given me everything, and I love it.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

There’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

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.

I wake up in the morning and my mind starts making sentences, and I have to get rid of them fast – talk them or write them down.

I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.

I’ve been asked this question so many times, do you feel you need to write a book for adults? No, I don’t need to write a book for adults.

But Apple really beats to a different drummer. I used to say that Apple should be the Sony of this business, but in reality, I think Apple should be the Apple of this business.

The genesis of a poem for me is usually a cluster of words. The only good metaphor I can think of is a scientific one: dipping a thread into a supersaturated solution to induce crystal formation. I don’t think I solve problems in my poetry; I think I uncover the problems.

It was such a leap in my career when ‚Truman Show‘ came along. It’s always been a long process for me insofar as recognition goes, but that’s OK because you appreciate it when it comes.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

It is curious how instinctively one protects the image of oneself from idolatry or any other handling that could make it ridiculous, or too unlike the original to be believed any longer.

In my entire life, any time I’ve ever lost something, I’ve gotten something even better going around the next corner. It’s like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they’re going to throw away, I know I can be fine.

I wanted to only create a great perfume, not any perfume that would sell, but a great artistic one that the fans would not feel cheated by.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

I write songs about stuff that I can’t really get past personally – and then I write a song about it and I feel better.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.