If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.

Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

I only want my work to make people happy.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

I cannot claim to have had a hard time publishing.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

Being a hybrid maker off and on over the years, I’m very comfortable with the idea and have been the subject of quite a few pretty good mash-ups myself.

Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

I believe you never get tired by doing work. You get tired when you don’t work. When you clean your house, you don’t get tired; it gives you satisfaction.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

I hate the idea of genres.

The first stories I wrote when I was 12 were about Mars and landing on Mars.

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

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

Children always turn to the light.

Having listened to great songwriters like James Taylor and Carole King, I felt there was nothing new that was coming out that really represented me and the way I felt. So I started writing my own stuff.

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.

Everybody has goals, aspirations or whatever, and everybody has been at a point in their life where nobody believed in them.

To me, the most important artists in my career are Arcangel and Balvin. Arcangel gave me the push, the respect in the streets.

People who pity themselves think, ‚Why would I try to do anything? I’ll just fail.‘

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

For me, writing a novel is like having a dream. Writing a novel lets me intentionally dream while I’m still awake. I can continue yesterday’s dream today, something you can’t normally do in everyday life.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle.

I use my celebrity status to inspire someone, to give them hope.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

In writing, I apply my feminine side and respect the mystery involved in creation.

I’ve always appreciated a turn of phrase.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

Every collaboration helps you grow. With Bowie, it’s different every time. I know how to create settings, unusual aural environments. That inspires him. He’s very quick.

Siren voices tell me, ‚You don’t have to keep going on.‘ And then you think, ‚I’m a writer. What do I do? Sit there watching my wife clean up?‘ I don’t know. I like being a writer.

I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

Some of our earliest writing, in cuneiform, was about who owes what.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.