If this were all to go away tomorrow, all the big success, I would still be very happy going from bar to bar playing music for people.

I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will.

The instrument that I never learned how to play was my fans. You know, they are the part of the story that nobody teaches you. I just want to do the right thing; I want to be a voice with them, among them.

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

As long as my music is real, it’s no limit to how many ears I can grab.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

Instead, I have an abundance mentality: When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger.

‚House of Balloons‘ was actually supposed to have more songs than it does.

One of the interesting things about having little musical knowledge is that you generate surprising results sometimes; you move to places you wouldn’t if you knew better.

My name is Adam Sandler. I’m not particularly talented. I’m not particularly good-looking. And yet I’m a multi-millionaire.

Saints can be happy under every circumstance.

In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.

Passion is needed for any great work, and for the revolution, passion and audacity are required in big doses.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

I have always enjoyed watching my songs make people cry.

I don’t measure my success anymore by the Grammys. I can’t because I’ll just end up crushed.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down.

I think generally playing live is a crap idea. So much of stage work is the presentation of personality, and I’ve never been interested in that.

I was a sociology major. And it had nothing to do necessarily with law, which is ultimately – I went to law school. But what I tried to do was choose something that I was passionate about or something that I cared about.

Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

I don’t mean to be cocky, but if I’m never on TV again, if I never make another dollar, I am proud. I did what I wanted to do.

Even when we have physical hardships, we can be very happy.

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God’s children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.

‚Evil men have no songs.‘ How is it that the Russians have songs?

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

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

I’m the same kid who used to hop the trains with headphones and just go to downtown Manhattan, walk around and listen to music or walk through the city. The fame restricts that. It’s a small complaint in comparison to the benefits I get from it, but the restrictive part is what I don’t like – and the fact that it’s not reversible.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

Doing music to pay bills is an uncomfortable situation. I never wanted to be in that situation.

I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.

Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

It all went wrong with football, the thing I loved most of all, and from there, my life slowly fell apart.

I want to let you in on a little secret: I don’t always feel like I’m a success. That’s right. There are plenty of times when I feel like I’ve just totally messed up and failed to connect with the people I’m trying to communicate with.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who haven’t and don’t.

Today, I’d like to talk to Bob Marley. I’d just like to ask him what was his method. Bob is one of the greatest songwriters ever. I don’t know if people understand how powerful his songs are and the simplicity and genius behind them, from ‚Redemption Song‘ to ‚Is This Love?‘ and ‚I Shot the Sheriff.‘

The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Young men have a passion for regarding their elders as senile.

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.

I care very deeply about the people at Tesla. I feel like I have a great debt to the people of Tesla who are making the company successful.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too – eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway – I was a sandwich artist – and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.

If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.