Partnering with Atlantic Records creates the opportunity to take what we’re doing to the next level, without compromising.

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

I have taken taking my music to labels for years, and everyone just thought it was creepy. They thought the images with the music were weird and verging on psychotic.

I’ve never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn’t feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you’ve got to work as hard as them.

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

There was a time Michael Jackson couldn’t get his video on MTV because he was considered to be ‚urban.‘ The Michael Jackson. So I literally have to be the Michael Jackson of apparel in order to break down the doors for everyone who will come after I’m gone, after I’m dead.

There are definitely designers that I love, people I love to work with. And who they are as people matters. Are they good people? Do they treat their staff well? Do they treat my staff well? Are they young? Can I give them a boost? But when all of that is equal… is it cute?

Doing graphic novels is cool! It’s fun! You get to write something, and then see it visually page by page, panel by panel, working with the artist, you get to see it fleshed out.

It’s insane that, since the Beatles and Dylan, it’s assumed that all musicians should do everything themselves. It’s that ridiculous, teenage idea that when Mick Jagger sings, he’s telling you something about his own life. It’s so arrogant to think that people would want to know about it anyway!

You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.

Now, we are selling over 5 million songs a day now. Isn’t that unbelievable? That’s 58 songs every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

My father will anticipate everything. He will leave you and me no chance to do a great and brilliant deed.

You’re dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway.

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

When you’re young, you keep reading new writers and you keep changing your mind about how you ought to sound.

To keep the business going, you gotta keep it boomin‘.

I want to make pop cool again, and the only way I can do that is by being ambitious and grand.

We should not underestimate ourselves, because if lots of individuals go together then we can accomplish almost anything.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Cruelty, like every other vice, requires no motive outside of itself; it only requires opportunity.

I’m not a genius. I need other people to get the perfect information. When we have this, we will decide to sign or sell a player.

You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.

An empowered organisation is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organisational success.

In pop music, the public usually see the results – the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.

The most genius thing about the way I create is to create with other geniuses.

The good thing about having chemistry is, when you get to the improv section of a scene, you’ve got somebody to feed off. It can go on and on and on, and the sky’s the limit.

China and the U.S. need each other very badly. Yes, we should argue about some things, but it’s not an ‚us versus them,‘ it’s an ‚us and them‘ type scenario.

There are few cases in which mere popularity should be considered a proper test of merit; but the case of song-writing is, I think, one of the few.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

We will explore the mysteries of science and harness the power of technology and innovation. We will realise the opportunities of the digital world. Our youth will learn more from – and with – each other.

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

I wrote a song with Ed Sheeran that was kind of spontaneous.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

No one that encounters prosperity does not also encounter danger.

Do not let circumstances control you. You change your circumstances.

Age merely shows what children we remain.

My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I’m not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I’m 50?

We have these services that people love and that are drivers of data usage… and we want to work this out, so that way, it’s a profitable model for our partners.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

I think Kenny Chesney or Garth Brooks would be the coolest duet partners. I look up to them so much for their work ethics.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. All is riddle, and the key to a riddle is another riddle.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

Football is a team game and none can survive or excel without the help of the other.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

As more airlines consolidated and grew larger and more focused on the bottom line, flying in the U.S. became an awful experience. Despite moves to block our airline from flying, Virgin America began service in August 2007 – with the goal of making flying good again.

Probably the reason it’s a little hard to break away from the album format completely is, if you’re getting a band together in the studio, it makes financial sense to do more than one song at a time. And it makes more sense, if you’re going to all the effort of performing and doing whatever else, if there’s a kind of bundle.

Strangely, some songs you really don’t want to write.

I’ve thought sometimes about what I like about football, and it’s playing together.

I’ve had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, ‚Your music sucks, you don’t know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don’t know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.‘

The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

I’ve been a huge fan of Chris Martin forever; it’d be awesome to work with him. He’s really kind, and he’s been really encouraging when we’ve met.