At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

I am not part of the problem. I am a Republican.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I’m always going to feel everything. It’s my nature.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

I don’t know who I would have been if I never watched MotoGP.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

For me, time is the greatest mystery of all. The fact is that we’re dreaming all the time. That’s what really gets me. We have a fathomless lake of unconsciousness just beneath our skulls.

Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

That’s the biggest gift I can give anybody: ‚Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you’re doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.‘

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.

People should not make me out to be like Jesus; I don’t walk on water.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

If you’ve lost your spirit, even living in the richest country in the world can’t help you become rich.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

I’m not trying to follow a set of rules and stuff. I’m just living my life.

If a woman possesses manly virtues one should run away from her; and if she does not possess them she runs away from herself.

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.

If I were not Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

Sometimes, you might meet somebody that you love that’s turning into a ‚they.‘ My key is invite them to Miami and take them to the ocean and let them jump off the boat in the ocean, on the sand bar, and cleanse off and pray and then go take a shower, and hopefully the ‚they‘ is out of you.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

I exaggerate when I’m angry, but I’ve never gone around telling people things that aren’t true about me.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

My son’s full real name is Duncan Zowie Haywood. As a toddler, he was called by his second name Zowie. But it was such an identifiable name during the Seventies that if I called him loudly in public places, everyone would turn to stare, so I started calling him Joey to take the pressure off.

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

Oh, I’ve always been very… Emotional. ‚Hypersensitive‘ is what they call it, I think.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

My number one thing? Don’t overleverage yourself. Don’t say you can do something when you really can’t.

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

I am a good listener. I think that came from my schooling.

People think I’m a celebrity. I’m not a celebrity.