Modern poets talk against business, poor things, but all of us write for money. Beginners are subjected to trial by market.

One thing is certain in business. You and everyone around you will make mistakes.

A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.

That is what we are supposed to do when we are at our best – make it all up – but make it up so truly that later it will happen that way.

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

There are only 3 colors, 10 digits, and 7 notes; its what we do with them that’s important.

I’m a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

I started writing as a child. But I didn’t think of myself actually writing until I was in college. And I had gone to Africa as a sophomore or something – no, maybe junior – and wrote a book of poems. And that was my beginning. I published that book.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

I don’t control my writing – it controls me.

I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.

It’s lack that gives us inspiration. It’s not fullness.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

When I was making ‚Star Wars,‘ I wasn’t restrained by any kind of science. I simply said, ‚I’m going to create a world that’s fun and interesting, makes sense, and seems to have a reality to it.‘

The technology keeps moving forward, which makes it easier for the artists to tell their stories and paint the pictures they want.

For just when ideas fail, a word comes in to save the situation.

The true spirit of delight, the exaltation, the sense of being more than Man, which is the touchstone of the highest excellence, is to be found in mathematics as surely as poetry.

I often get ideas for songs on the tour bus at odd times. Like at 6am when no one is around, I’d just write.

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

I like sitting and writing with my buddies.

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.

Love is the answer to everything. It’s the only reason to do anything. If you don’t write stories you love, you’ll never make it. If you don’t write stories that other people love, you’ll never make it.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, as those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.

I used to take my short stories to girls‘ homes and read them to them. Can you imagine the reaction reading a short story to a girl instead of pawing her?

History should be written as philosophy.

The artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

Money is usually attracted, not pursued.

A lot of people don’t realise I came out of the Smoky Mountains with a load of songs.

I’ve had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.

One great use of words is to hide our thoughts.

That’s something that is almost accidental at the beginning of a career, but the more you write, the more trained you are to recognize the little signals.

Editing is now the easiest thing on earth to do, and all the things that evolved out of word processing – ‚Oh, let’s put that sentence there, let’s get rid of this‘ – have become commonplace in films and music too.

If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.

I might just write a novel next. I don’t know!

If I had a stock of fabulous sounds I would just always use them. I wouldn’t bother to find new ones.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I’m using my own memory, and I’m using my collective memory.

My dream is to be World Lightweight Champion in the UFC. Have more money than I know what to do with. And have a great life for my kids, grandkids, and everyone in my family.

All you have in business is your reputation – so it’s very important that you keep your word.

I think my first album opened a lot of doors for me to push the freedom of speech to the limit.

Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

In my work, as a writer, I only photograph, in words, what I see.

What inspires me about rap is that it’s written in an almost poetic way. I just think it’s so cool.

When I see a story, I ask: is this something I’d like to be in? Is this something I’d like to see? And if I’d like to see it, would I like to tell it?

Art is not a thing; it is a way.

Money often costs too much.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

There’s no formula.

George Orwell is half journalist, half fiction writer. I’m 100 percent fiction writer… I don’t want to write messages. I want to write good stories. I think of myself as a political person, but I don’t state my political messages to anybody.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

I feel, as a songwriter, it’s one of the hardest things to do – to sit down and say how you feel.

And if you’re horrible to me I’m going to write a song about you and you are not going to like it. That’s how I operate.

Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.

I’ve never written a song in my life. It’s all a big hoax.

I’m in this business to be creative – I’ll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.

The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.

I wasn’t that great a chef, and I don’t think I’m that great a writer.