We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

It’s an endless proving of myself, that I really am a musician, that I have something to offer in the room. That women can be musicians, women can be rock stars, women can be more than an objectified idea of a pop star.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

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.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

Don’t feel sorry for me.

My whole life has been one big improvisation.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

I always wanted a family.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose.

Had I been a great athlete, I’m not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

God has entrusted me with myself.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

‚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.

It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read.

All ways of living can be sanctified, and for each individual, the ideal way is that to which our Lord leads him through the natural development of his tastes and the pressure of circumstances.

I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

I had a lovers quarrel with the world.

There are a lot of people who don’t know me and what I am all about.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

I don’t have to be what you want me to be.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of.

I feel confident imposing change on myself. It’s a lot more fun progressing than looking back. That’s why I need to throw curve balls.

My life is my argument.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

I used to worry about every little thing, trying to figure out every problem. Well, I realize now how foolish that was. I was no more in control of my life than the man on the moon.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.