I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

The possession of anything begins in the mind.

I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

Relationships are the hallmark of the mature person.

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

Honestly, I always believed in myself. For real, for real.

You simply have to accept that your demons are a part of you.

Before all else, be armed.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

To meditate means to go home to yourself. Then you know how to take care of the things that are happening inside you, and you know how to take care of the things that happen around you.

I could never identify with that word, ‚weak.‘

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I’m conscious of the mainstream without selling out.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

The thing I always say to people is this: ‚If you avoid failure, you also avoid success.‘

Your success, or lack of success, is your responsibility. Even when you have a chain of command that you don’t like as well, its your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

When you’re a pop star, it’s a little conservative; you always have to stay in a box. You have fans that are five and fans that are 65; there are so many people wanting so many things.

I’ve learned that we all change constantly. It’s rare to find that person who is growing with you in the same way at the same time, who encourages you to grow.

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

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.

I am an over-achiever, and I want to be known for the good things in my life.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

I like to be myself, and I don’t pretend. For instance, I don’t dress up for occasions; I am what I am.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

I used to have insecurity about my finances, then I announced that I had debt, and now I don’t have any insecurities.

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

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.

You see, I am trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across – not to just depict life – or criticize it – but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me, you actually experience the thing. You can’t do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful.

Swearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

I grew up as this very carefree, happy kid then things turned darker for me. Maybe it was because I saw that the world wasn’t as happy a place as I had hoped it would be for me.

I get nervous when I don’t get nervous. If I’m nervous I know I’m going to have a good show.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

All of our problems start in our minds.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.