In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

I like to make people feel happy and superior in their reaction towards my appearance.

Lying in bed would be an altogether perfect and supreme experience if only one had a colored pencil long enough to draw on the ceiling.

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.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

Be a player; don’t play yourself. And don’t play basketball. That’s not your sport, Jeb Bush.

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

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

The only really committed artist is he who, without refusing to take part in the combat, at least refuses to join the regular armies and remains a freelance.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

A musician should only sound like what they do, and no two musicians sound the same. It’s an individual-feel thing, you know?

When you look at the light bulb above you, you remember Thomas Alva Edison. When the telephone bell rings, you remember Alexander Graham Bell. Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. When you see the blue sky, you think of Sir C.V. Raman.

Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.

God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

Human nature is not nearly as bad as it has been thought to be.

My mother was always fascinated with the fact that I could rhyme so much stuff.

All of my writing is God-given.

I will not be triumphed over.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

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

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.

I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.

The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life. It should be something useful, something good.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.

Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

What someone else does or doesn’t do has no effect on me and what I do.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

Life is a song to me.

With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look – for dizzier heights.

Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

These poems, with all their crudities, doubts, and confusions, are written for the love of Man and in praise of God, and I’d be a damn‘ fool if they weren’t.

One thing Britons have always been celebrated for, and that is being able to stick it out in a tight place.

Those people in New York are not gonna change me none.

God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

Me, as a person, I grow. I’m like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.

Imagination rules the world.

If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly and lone and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

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

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

I can express myself.

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?